President Joe Biden called for Congress to back his proposals for two significant changes to the U.S. Supreme Court and a change to the U.S. Constitution.
In an op-ed published the morning of July 29, the president outlined his reasoning for pursuing changes that have been long-sought by progressive camps in U.S. politics.
According to a White House official, President Biden will call for Congress to back term limits for Supreme Court justices and a code of ethics enforceable by the legislative branch.
He also will propose an amendment to limit the extent of presidential immunity afforded by the Constitution, proposing that former presidents be granted no immunity for crimes committed while in office.
Citing his 36 years as a U.S. senator and former chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, President Biden said that while he has “great respect for our institutions and separation of powers,” what is happening now in the United States is “not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms.”
“We now stand in a breach,” the president wrote.
In recent years, the Supreme Court released some decisions that sparked criticism from Democrats and progressives, including its overturning of Roe v. Wade and more recently, its 6–3 ruling that presidents and former presidents are, in principle, immune from prosecution for official acts.
Today, the president made clear his resolve to dedicate time during his last five months in office to back changes that he says can restore trust and accountability in both the Supreme Court and the presidency, a White House official told The Epoch Times.
The announcement was made a week after President Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race in favor of a run by Vice President Kamala Harris.
In 2020, then-candidate Mr. Biden promised to create a commission to study potential changes to the Supreme Court amid progressive voices calling for the expansion of the Supreme Court. The commission published a 294-page report to the president in December 2021. President Biden has not acted on that report until now.
The president is scheduled to speak Monday on his plan, from the LBJ Presidential Library, while commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.
The move marks the first significant effort by a president since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s progressive court-packing plan to advocate for changes to the workings of the Supreme Court. President Roosevelt’s push for a more favorable court ultimately failed in the face of significant opposition.
President Biden’s proposal follows years of progressive advocacy to push their preferred reforms on the judicial branch, which has met resistance from those who hold originalist views widely preferred within the GOP.
The White House says that term limits for Supreme Court justices would help ensure that the timing of court nominations is more predictable and less arbitrary, reducing the chance that any single presidency be advantaged by the retirement times of justices.
Additionally, a binding code of conduct for justices, including the disclosure of gifts, refraining from public political activity, and recusal from cases with conflicts of interest would improve public trust in the institution, the White House said.
Critics of the code of conduct have expressed concern that oversight of justices by Congress would politicize the court.
For President Biden to be successful, his proposals would require 60 votes for passages in the Senate. His proposed constitutional amendment faces additional hurdles, including two-thirds support in both chambers of Congress, or by a convention of two-thirds of the states, and then approval by three-fourths of state legislatures.
Former President Donald Trump previously said of such efforts in the legislative branch: “The Democrats are attempting to interfere in the Presidential Election, and destroy our Justice System, by attacking their Political Opponent, ME, and our Honorable Supreme Court,” he wrote on Truth Social. “We have to fight for our Fair and Independent Courts, and protect our Country.”
The former president also warned that any removal of presidential immunity for official acts of former presidents would risk politicizing prosecutions and undermine the office of the president.
