By: Zach Schonfeld, The Hill, Michael Johnson
(The Hill) — President Joe Biden on Monday will propose term limits for Supreme Court justices and a constitutional amendment to counteract their recent presidential immunity decision, according to a White House official.
Biden will endorse the proposals during a speech Monday afternoon at the LBJ Presidential Library, where he will also voice support for a binding code of conduct for the justices.
“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. No one,” Biden wrote in an op-ed slated to be published Monday morning.
The announcement marks a major shift for the president, who has long resisted progressives’ calls for Supreme Court reforms over fears it would politicize the court. Conservatives have portrayed the effort as an attack to tear down the court’s 6-3 conservative majority.
Biden has increasingly taken on the court, particularly after it overturned constitutional abortion protections and carved out criminal immunity for former presidents. Biden signaled the forthcoming announcement in his recent Oval Office speech addressing his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
“I have great respect for our institutions and separation of powers. What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms. We now stand in a breach,” Biden wrote in Monday’s op-ed.
One part of Biden’s three-fold proposal directly responds to the immunity decision, which handed a major win to former President Donald Trump by dooming some elements of his criminal prosecutions.
Biden on Monday will call for a constitutional amendment that would partially overturn the landmark decision by making clear former presidents do not enjoy criminal immunity from federal criminal indictments. It would not apply to state indictments, however.
Biden will also demand 18-year term limits for the nine justices, which would enable the sitting president to appoint a new justice every two years.
“The United States is the only major constitutional democracy that gives lifetime seats to its high court Justices. Term limits would help ensure that the Court’s membership changes with some regularity; make timing for Court nominations more predictable and less arbitrary; and reduce the chance that any single Presidency imposes undue influence for generations to come,” reads a White House fact sheet on the proposal.
Biden will also endorse a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court, which has faced relentless public pressure on its ethics standards following reports of Justice Clarence Thomas and others accepting lavish trips and gifts from billionaires.
In November, the court adopted an ethics code after months of closed-door discussions, but its lack of enforcement mechanism has drawn criticism from Democrats and some watchdog groups.
Justice Elena Kagan endorsed an enforcement mechanism while speaking at a judicial conference last week, becoming the first current justice to publicly support it.
Durbin ‘thanks’ Biden
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin (D) is the U.S. Senate Majority Whip and Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He previously announced that in September, the Judiciary Committee will hold a full committee hearing on the impact of the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision.
Durbin released a statement Monday morning praising Biden’s proposals for Supreme Court reforms.
“I thank President Biden for highlighting the Supreme Court’s ethical crisis,” Durbin’s statement said. “Through our ongoing investigation, the Senate Judiciary Committee has verified and reported lavish trips by sitting justices that were paid for by wealthy benefactors, including some previously unknown to the public.
“These episodes call into question the ability of justices to remain fair and impartial when these parties have interests before the Court. For instance, Justice Thomas’s spouse was on the payroll of political organizations seeking to overturn the 2020 election, yet Justice Thomas refused to recuse himself from cases on issues directly related to the Jan. 6 insurrection. That includes the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision, which was wrongly decided and must be remedied.”
A press release with Durbin’s statement notes the senator has called on the Supreme Court to adopt an enforceable code of conduct for more than a decade, first sending a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts on the issue more than 12 years ago.
“If Chief Justice Roberts won’t use his existing authority to implement reform, Congress should use its established Constitutional authority to require the Court to implement ethics reforms consistent with every other federal court. The American people are demanding Supreme Court ethics reform, and I will continue my 12-year effort until it is done,” Durbin’s statement concluded.
Durbin has repeatedly called for passage of the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act, legislation advanced by the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2023. That bill, the release says, would require Supreme Court justices to adopt a binding code of conduct, create a mechanism to investigate alleged violations of the code of conduct and other laws, improve disclosure and transparency when a justice has a connection to a party or amicus before the court, and require justices to explain their recusal decisions to the public.
Harris issues statement
Vice President Kamala Harris also issued a statement Monday morning regarding Supreme Court reforms, which said:
“In the course of our Nation’s history, trust in the Supreme Court of the United States has been critical to achieving equal justice under law. President Biden and I strongly believe that the American people must have confidence in the Supreme Court. Yet today, there is a clear crisis of confidence facing the Supreme Court as its fairness has been called into question after numerous ethics scandals and decision after decision overturning long-standing precedent.
“That is why President Biden and I are calling on Congress to pass important reforms — from imposing term limits for Justices’ active service, to requiring Justices to comply with binding ethics rules just like every other federal judge. And finally, in our democracy, no one should be above the law. So we must also ensure that no former President has immunity for crimes committed while in the White House.
“These popular reforms will help to restore confidence in the Court, strengthen our democracy, and ensure no one is above the law.”
Biden will discuss his reform proposals during an address at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. The trip was originally slated to take place earlier this month, but Biden rescheduled it in the wake of Trump’s assassination attempt.
Alex Gangitano contributed.
