President Joe Biden unveiled a proposal for sweeping reforms to the United States Supreme Court on Monday, calling on Congress to apply term limits and an enforceable code of ethics to the high court’s justices. In a Washington Post op-ed announcing the plan, Biden also argued for a new constitutional amendment limiting the scope of presidential immunity.
“This nation was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law,” Biden wrote. “Not the president of the United States. Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. No one.”
This nation was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law.
Not the President of the United States.
Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States.So today, I'm calling for three bold reforms to restore trust and accountability to the court…
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 29, 2024
Citing concern over the recent 6-3 Supreme Court ruling determining that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal charges regarding actions that fall within their constitutional authority, Biden warned that this precedent puts “virtually no limits on what a president can do.” To counter this, the president is calling for Congress to pass the “No One Is Above the Law Amendment,” granting former presidents like Donald Trump no immunity whatsoever.
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Biden also condemned other Court rulings, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade, as well as recent ethical concerns about “undisclosed gifts to justices…[and] conflicts of interest connected with Jan. 6 insurrectionists.” These issues have inspired the president to call for term limits for Supreme Court justices, who currently serve lifelong appointments.
“Term limits would help ensure that the court’s membership changes with some regularity,” he wrote. “That would make timing for court nominations more predictable and less arbitrary. It would reduce the chance that any single presidency radically alters the makeup of the court for generations to come.”
Biden’s proposal would allow a president to appoint a new justice to an 18-year term every two years.
This significant reform would be accompanied by a new “binding code of conduct” to replace the Court’s “weak and self-enforced” voluntary ethics code.
“Every other federal judge is bound by an enforceable code of conduct, and there is no reason for the Supreme Court to be exempt,” Biden said.
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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