Biden unveils proposal to limit Supreme Court terms

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden reveals a Long-awaited proposal for change to the US Supreme Courtcalling on Congress to establish term limits and an ethics code for the court’s nine justices. It also urges lawmakers to ratify a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity.

The White House on Monday detailed the contours of Biden’s judicial proposal, a proposal that appears unlikely to win approval in a closely divided Congress with just 99 days to go. Election Day.

Still, Democrats hope it will help guide voters as they consider their choices in a tight election. The likely Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, has sought to portray her race against Republican former President Donald Trump as “A choice between freedom and chaos.”

The White House is seeking to exploit growing Democratic outrage over the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, by issuing opinions that historic decisions overturned on the right to abortion and federal regulatory powers which has stood for decades.

Liberals have also expressed dismay at revelations of what they see as shady dealings and at decisions by some members of the court’s conservative wing that suggest their impartiality is compromised.

“I have great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers,” Biden said in a Washington Post op-ed to be published Monday. “What is happening now is not normal and undermines public confidence in the Court’s decisions, including those that impact individual liberties. We now find ourselves in a breach.”

The president planned to speak about his proposal later Monday during a speech at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.

Biden calls for eliminating lifetime appointments to the court. He says Congress should pass legislation to establish a system in which the sitting president would nominate a justice every two years to serve 18 years on the court. He argues that term limits would help ensure that the composition of the court changes with some regularity and add some predictability to the nomination process.

He also wants Congress to pass legislation establishing an ethics code for judges that would require them 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.

Biden is also calling on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment overturning the Supreme Court’s recent decision. historic decision on immunity that some former presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution.

The decision extended the deadline in Washington’s criminal case against Trump on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat and all prospects of the former president being tried before the November elections are virtually gone.

The last time Congress ratified an amendment to the Constitution was 32 years ago. The 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, provides that Congress can pass a bill changing the compensation of members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, but such a change cannot take effect until after the next House elections in November.

Trump has denounced judicial reform as a desperate attempt by Democrats to “play referee.”

“Democrats are trying to interfere in the presidential election and destroy our judicial system by attacking their political opponent, the ME, and our honorable Supreme Court. We must fight for our fair and independent courts and protect our country,” Trump said on his Truth Social website earlier this month.

Questions about the Court’s ethics are growing after revelations about certain judges, including that Clarence Thomas accepted GOP megadonor’s luxury travels.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was nominated under the Obama administration, has come under scrutiny after it was revealed that her staff often encouraged the public institutions that housed her to buy copies of his memoirs or children’s books.

Justice Samuel Alito rejected calls to step down Supreme Court The cases involving Trump and the Jan. 6 defendants were decided despite controversy over provocative flags flown at his home, which some said suggested sympathy for those accused of storming the U.S. Capitol to keep Trump in power. Alito claims the flags were flown by his wife.

Trump, at the time, congratulated Alito on his social media site for “showing INTELLIGENCE, COURAGE and GUTS” by refusing to step down. “All American judges, magistrates and leaders should have such COURAGE.”

Democrats say Biden’s effort will help shine a spotlight on recent high court decisions, including the 2022 decision. remove constitutional protections for women in matters of abortionby the conservative-majority Supreme Court, which includes three justices appointed by Trump.

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that Biden’s reform was intended to remind Americans that “when they vote in November, the Supreme Court will be on the ballot.”

She added: “This is a good reason to vote for Kamala Harris and to vote for Democrats in the Senate and the House.”

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina countered that Democrats don’t complain when a more liberal court “issues opinions that they like.”

“It wasn’t until we restored the constitutional balance by having a conservative court that it became a threat to the country,” Graham said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “What’s a threat to the country is an out-of-control liberal court that’s issuing opinions that take control of every phase of American life based on the judgment of nine people.”

The announcement marks a remarkable shift for Biden, who as a candidate had been wary of calls to reform the Supreme Court. But over the course of his presidency, he has increasingly expressed his belief that the court has abandoned traditional constitutional interpretation.

Last week, he announced in an Oval Office speech that he would pursue Supreme Court reform in his final months in office, calling it “essential to our democracy.”

Harris, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, had said she was open to discussing expanding the nine-member Supreme Court. The proposals unveiled Monday do not include such an effort, something Biden, as a candidate, viewed with skepticism.

As a vice presidential candidate, Harris notably questions dodged about his previous stance on the issue during his October 2020 debate with Vice President Mike Pence.

Harris’ campaign and aides to the vice president did not respond to questions about Harris’ involvement in crafting the Biden proposal and whether she would pursue other justice reform efforts if elected.

The White House said in a statement: “Biden and Vice President Harris look forward to working with Congress and empowering the American people to prevent abuses of presidential power, restore confidence in the Supreme Court, and strengthen the safeguards of democracy.”

___

Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.