Biden Calls for Supreme Court Term Limits

President Biden announced new, sweeping plans on Monday that would reshape the Supreme Court in his image. 

In an opinion piece published by the Washington Post, Biden argued for “three bold reforms” that would fundamentally change the institution as we know it. The most controversial of the three reforms is Biden’s second which would impose 18-year term limits and empower the president to “appoint a justice every two years to spend 18 years in active service on the Supreme Court.”

“We have had term limits for presidents for nearly 75 years,” Biden wrote. “We should have the same for Supreme Court justices.”

Biden’s two other reforms center around presidential immunity and Court decorum. 

The first is a constitutional amendment titled “No One Is Above the Law,” which would counter the Supreme Court’s recent 6–3 ruling on presidential power. That decision at least temporarily helped former President Trump elude persecution by Special Counsel Jack Smith and was panned by the Court’s left-leaning justices.

“In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law,” warned Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the minority. 

Biden’s final reform would introduce an ethics code following a year in which two conservative justices faced widespread media criticism. 

Associate Justice Clarence Thomas faced outcry following revelations in a 2023 ProPublica investigation that found Thomas failed to disclose private gifts and luxury travel provided by the GOP megadonor Harlan Crow. Associate Justice Samuel Alito was similarly chastised for flying an inverted American flag in the aftermath of the contentious 2020 election. 

Biden’s code calls for 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.”

Biden, who is expected to officially announce his support for the reforms during the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, stopped short of calling for the Court’s expansion in his statement. 

“We can and must prevent the abuse of presidential power,” Biden wrote in conclusion. “We can and must restore the public’s faith in the Supreme Court. We can and must strengthen the guardrails of democracy. In America, no one is above the law. In America, the people rule.”

Although Biden’s proposal found early support from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and other top Democrats, including the presumptive Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, the three reforms are unlikely to gain congressional approval and are considered by many aspirational as Biden faces the sobering reality of his final three months as president.

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