Washington  — President Joe Biden has launched a long-awaited proposal for changes to the United States Supreme Court, urging Congress to create term limits and an enforceable ethics code for the court’s nine members. He’s also urging Congress to pass a constitutional amendment that limits presidential immunity.

The White House disclosed the details of Biden’s court proposal on Monday. With only 99 days until Election Day, it appears to have little chance of passing through a deeply divided Congress.

Biden | AP News image

Biden Unveils A Proposal To Establish Term Limits For The Supreme Court

Still, Democrats hope it will help voters focus as they make their choices in a close election. The likely Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, who has sought to portray her run against Republican ex-President Donald Trump as “a choice between freedom and chaos,” has questioned the court’s fairness in light of recent judgments.

The White House is hoping to capitalize on Democrats’ mounting fury over the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, which has issued opinions overturning landmark abortion rights and government regulatory powers that have lasted for decades.

Liberals have also expressed concern over revelations of questionable relationships and choices made by some members of the court’s right side, which they claim undermine their impartiality.

“I have great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers,” Biden writes in a Washington Post op-ed published Monday. “What is going on currently is not normal, and it affects public trust in the court’s decisions, even those affecting personal liberties. “We are now in a breach.”

Harris later said that the American people must believe in a Supreme Court plagued by ethics scandals and judgments contradicting long-standing precedent. She stated that the proposed reforms “will help to restore confidence in the Court, strengthen our democracy, and ensure that no one is above the law.”

The president planned to discuss his proposal later Monday during a talk at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, commemorating the Civil Rights Act’s 60th anniversary.

Biden proposes eliminating lifetime appointments to the court. He believes Congress should approve legislation establishing a system in which the sitting president appoints a justice every two years for an 18-year term on the court. He says that term limits would assist in ensuring that court membership changes regularly and stabilize the nomination process.

He also wants Congress to enact legislation to create a court code of ethics that would force justices to disclose gifts, refrain from public political participation, and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their wives have financial or other conflicts of interest.

Biden is also urging Congress to propose a constitutional amendment overturning the Supreme Court’s recent landmark immunity decision, which found that former presidents had extensive immunity from prosecution.

That judge extended the delay in the Washington criminal case against Trump on allegations that he attempted to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat, effectively ending the former president’s chances of being tried before the November election.

According to polls, Americans support reducing the time judges can serve on the Supreme Court. Last summer, a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research revealed that 67% of Americans, including 82% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans, backed a plan to limit the number of years that justices can serve instead of life terms.

The first three justices who may be affected by term restrictions are on the right. Justice Clarence Thomas has served on the bench for nearly 33 years. Chief Justice John Roberts has served for 19 years, while Justice Samuel Alito has served for 18.

From its inception until 1970, Supreme Court judges served an average of 17 years, according to Gabe Roth, executive director of the Fix the Court organization. Since 1970, the average has been approximately 28 years. Both conservative and liberal politicians have supported term limits.

“If justices have this much power, then they should be individuals who reflect America as it currently is, not the America of 30 or 40 years ago, the dead hand of the president who appointed them still influencing policy,” according to Roth.

Meanwhile, an enforcement mechanism for the Supreme Court’s code of ethics might move the justices closer to other federal judges, who are subject to a disciplinary system in which anybody can make and examine a complaint. An investigation may result in censure and reprimand. Last week, Justice Elena Kagan became the first justice to publicly advocate for creating a mechanism to implement the new ethics code.

However, establishing an ethics code enforcement system for the Supreme Court is more complex than it may appear.

According to Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics specialist at NYU School of Law, the attorney general has always had the authority to prosecute violations of the financial and gift disclosure laws, but he has never utilized that power against federal judges.

Meanwhile, the group that oversees lower court judges is led by Roberts, “who might be reluctant to use whatever power the conference has against his colleagues,” Gillers added in an email.

It has been 32 years since Congress ratified a constitutional amendment. The 27th Amendment, approved in 1992, specifies that Congress can pass a measure modifying the salary of members of the House and Senate, but such a change cannot go into effect until after the next November House elections.

Trump has slammed judicial reform as Democrats’ desperate attempt to “play the ref.”

“The Democrats are seeking to disrupt the presidential election and undermine our justice system by targeting their political opponent, ME, and our Honourable Supreme Court. We must battle for our fair and independent courts while also protecting our country,” Trump said on his Truth Social page earlier this month.

Following revelations about some justices, like Thomas accepting luxurious trips from a GOP megadonor, doubts about the court’s ethics have grown.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, chosen during the Obama administration, has drawn criticism after it was revealed that her staff frequently pressured public organizations that hosted her to purchase copies of her memoir or children’s books.

Biden | AP News image

Biden Unveils A Proposal To Establish Term Limits For The Supreme Court

Alito rebuffed requests to stand down from Supreme Court cases involving Trump and Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection suspects, despite a controversy over provocative flags posted at his houses, which some felt signaled sympathy for those charged with assaulting the U.S. Capitol to retain Trump in power. Alito claims his wife displayed the flags.

Democrats said Biden’s attempt would help shine a harsh light on recent Supreme Court decisions, such as the 2022 ruling that removed women’s constitutional abortion protections by the conservative-majority court, which includes three justices chosen by Trump.

The announcement is a significant shift for Biden, who, as a candidate, had been cautious of proposals to alter the Supreme Court. But, throughout his presidency, he has become increasingly public about his conviction that the court has abandoned conventional constitutional interpretation.

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

SOURCE | AP