Austin, Texas (Associated Press) President Joe Biden On Monday, he said “extremism” on the U.S. Supreme Court has eroded public confidence in the court and called for Congress to impose term limits and An enforceable code of ethics He called on the nine Supreme Court justices to urge lawmakers to ratify a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity.
With less than six months left in his term as president, Biden detailed the contours of his court proposal. Speech at the LBJ Presidential Library At a ceremony in Austin, Texas, marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, his call for dramatic reform of the Supreme Court has little chance of success in a tight Congress with just 99 days left until the Act goes into effect. Election Day.
Still, Democrats hope the bill will help narrow voter focus as they consider their options in a tough election. Democratic front-runner Vice President Kamala Harris is running against former Republican President Donald Trump. “The Choice Between Freedom and Chaos” He quickly endorsed Biden’s proposal.
“Extremism has eroded American confidence in the Supreme Court,” Biden said, adding, “We can and must prevent abuses of presidential power and restore confidence in the Supreme Court.”
The White House has capitalized on growing anger among Democrats over the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority. A landmark ruling was overturned Abortion rights and Federal Regulatory Powers This continued for decades.
Liberals have also expressed concern that revelations of questionable ties and decisions by some of the court’s conservative members are undermining the court’s impartiality.
Biden cited the 2013 Supreme Court decision that gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and rolled back abortion rights, and a 2023 decision that “eviscerated” affirmative action in college admissions as three prime examples of “outrageous” decisions that have shaken Americans’ faith in the Supreme Court.
In a statement, Harris said the proposed reforms are necessary because “the Supreme Court is facing a clear crisis of confidence.”
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson called the proposal a “dangerous gambit that will die when it gets to the House of Representatives.”
In a brief exchange with reporters before his speech, Biden dismissed Johnson’s comments that the proposal was stalled. “I think that’s exactly what Johnson is — dead on arrival,” Biden said, adding that he would “find a way to get it done.”
Biden has called for an end to lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court. He says Congress should pass legislation that would require a sitting president to appoint justices every two years to serve on the court for 18 years. Term limits, he argues, would help ensure regular turnover on the court and “reduce the ability of presidents to unfairly influence future generations.”
He also wants Congress to pass a bill establishing a code of judicial ethics that would require judges to disclose gifts, refrain from public political activity and avoid involvement in cases in which they or their spouses have financial or other conflicts of interest.
Biden has also called on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s recent rulings. Landmark exemption ruling The ruling gave former presidents broad immunity from prosecution.
The decision extended a stay on the criminal case against Trump in Washington. He plotted to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. And any chance the former president could be tried before the November election has effectively disappeared.
“This country was founded on the principle that in America there is no king,” Biden said. “We are all equal before the law. No one is above the law. In effect, the court’s decision almost certainly means that the president can break his oath and ignore our laws with no consequences.”
A majority of Americans support age limits for Supreme Court justices. August 2023 AP-NORC PollTwo-thirds wanted Supreme Court justices to be required to retire at a certain age. Democrats were more likely than Republicans to support a mandatory retirement age, 77% to 61%. When it came to the desire for an age limit, Americans across all age groups tended to agree, with those over 60 being as likely as other age groups to support an age limit for Supreme Court justices.
The first three justices who could be affected by term limits are on the right: Justice Clarence Thomas has been on the Supreme Court for almost 33 years, Chief Justice John Roberts for 19 years, and Justice Samuel Alito for 18 years.
Supreme Court justices served an average of about 17 years in office from the court’s founding until 1970, said Gabe Roth, executive director of the group Rebuild the Supreme Court. Since then, the average has been about 28 years. Both conservative and liberal politicians support term limits.
Meanwhile, the enforcement mechanism for the Supreme Court’s ethics rules could bring the court’s justices more in line with other federal judges who are subject to a disciplinary system in which anyone can file a complaint and have it reviewed. The investigations can lead to censures or reprimands. Justice Elena Kagan last week He publicly called for the creation of a way to enforce the new code of ethics.This will be the first judge to do so.
The last time Congress ratified a constitutional amendment was 32 years ago. The 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, allows Congress to pass legislation to change the pay of House members and senators, but such changes would not take effect until the next House election in November.
President Trump has denounced the court reforms as a desperate attempt by Democrats to “control the courts.”
“Democrats are trying to interfere in our presidential election and destroy our justice system by attacking their political opponents, the state of Maine and the Supreme Court. We must fight for fair and independent courts and protect our country,” Trump posted on his Truth Social site this month.
Questions are growing about ethics at the Supreme Court following revelations about some of its justices. Thomas embraced luxury travel. It comes from a major Republican donor.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was appointed during the Obama administration, has faced intense scrutiny after it was revealed that her staff frequently persecuted public officials who invited her to serve. Buy her memoirs and children’s books.
Justice Alito has rejected calls to recuse himself from the Supreme Court’s case involving Trump and defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, but the uproar over a provocative flag flying in his home that some believe suggests sympathy for those accused of storming the U.S. Capitol to keep Trump in power has come after Justice Alito said it was his wife who put up the flag.
“These scandals involving our justices have caused public doubt about the impartiality and independence of the Supreme Court, which are essential to fundamentally fulfilling our mission of equal justice under the law,” Biden said.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell countered that Biden’s proposal amounted to “lighting fire” on the “crown jewel of our system of government.”
“President Biden and his left-wing allies are not happy with the current makeup of the Supreme Court, so they want to tear up the Constitution and change it,” McConnell said.
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Madani reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Mark Sherman, Seungmin Kim, Amelia Thomson DeVoe, Lindsay Whitehurst and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
