President Biden on Monday outlined his wish for Congress to impose “bold” rules on the Supreme Court, including term limits and a new code of conduct, and to draft a new constitutional amendment that limits presidential immunity.
“In recent years, extreme opinions that the Supreme Court has handed down have undermined the longest civil rights principles and protections,” Biden claimed Monday at the LBJ Presidential Library at an event in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.
Biden named a number of recent cases, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade and Trump v. United States, which he said “most shockingly” established some presidential immunity and called it a “dangerous precedent.”
“This court is being used to weaponize an extreme and unchecked agenda,” Biden said and called the immunity decision “a total affront to the basic expectations we have for those who wield the power of this,” the president said.
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“My fellow Americans, based on all my experience, I’m certain we need these reforms. We need these reforms to restore trust in the courts, preserve the system of checks and balances that are vital to our democracy,” he said.
Biden’s reforms would eliminate any immunity a former president enjoys for crimes committed while in office. Regarding the Supreme Court, Biden wants to impose a term limit of 18 years for justices. Once fully adopted, it would allow presidents to appoint new justices at a cadence of once every two years.
Biden argued the new Supreme Court code of conduct should require justices to “disclose gifts, refrain from public political activity, and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have financial or other conflicts of interest.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said that such radical changes would be “dead on arrival” in the House, and it’s unclear if Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. would push them in the Senate.
Biden on Monday retorted that Johnson’s “thinking” is “dead on arrival.”
The changes mark a shift in Biden’s approach to the Supreme Court. He has long resisted calls from within his own party to make changes like expanding the number of justices on the court, calling that a “bonehead” idea that would undermine the court’s credibility.
But now, as the high court sits with a Republican-nominee majority, Biden is pivoting to a much more radical approach.
Vice President Harris, who is also running for president, earlier on Monday endorsed the push. “Today, there is a clear crisis of confidence facing the Supreme Court as its fairness has been called into question after numerous ethics scandals and decision after decision overturning long-standing precedent,” she said.
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Biden’s announcement Monday marks his first policy push since abruptly dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Harris, just hours after saying he was “in it to win it.”
