U.S. President Joe Biden is weighing sweeping proposals to reshape the Supreme Court, including the establishment of term limits for the nine justices who now hold lifetime appointments and enacting an enforceable ethics code.
According to U.S. news accounts, Biden told members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus last weekend, “I’m going to need your help on the Supreme Court, because I’m about to come out … I don’t want to prematurely announce it, but I’m about to come out with a major initiative on limiting the court and what we do.”
Biden added, “I’ve been working with constitutional scholars for the last three months, and I need some help.”
Biden once was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that held confirmation hearings on Supreme Court nominees named by U.S. presidents. He has long been considered an institutionalist and resisted suggestions to enlarge the size of the court and appoint more liberals to undercut the current 6-3 conservative majority.
Biden does not appear to have changed his mind in opposition to enlarging the court.
But any changes he does suggest during his presidential election campaign against former President Donald Trump assuredly would not be enacted immediately, given the slim majority Democrats hold in the Senate and the fact that Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House of Representatives.
Perhaps an even longer shot for Biden would be to try to enact changes through a constitutional amendment, which requires two-thirds support of both chambers of Congress, or by a convention of two-thirds of the states, and then approval by three-fourths of state legislatures.
As he pledged during his 2020 campaign, Biden created a commission to study court reform, and while it issued a lengthy report, the panel did not make any specific recommendations and Biden did not take any action.
FILE - Visitors pose for photographs in front the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, June 18, 2024.
Since then, Democrats like Biden have grown increasingly dismayed at the court’s decisive move toward conservative rulings, especially overturning a nationwide constitutional right to abortion, blocking gun control measures, eliminating affirmative action in college admissions, eroding its adherence to court precedents, diminishing gay rights and, most recently, ruling that all U.S. presidents have immunity from prosecution for official acts.
News accounts said Biden is considering calling for a constitutional amendment that could limit the broad immunity for presidents the court just sanctioned.
It would not appear that setting term limits, such as for 18 years rather than lifetime appointments, would have any immediate effect on court rulings. It also was not clear how Biden’s suggestions for term limits would affect the court’s current nine justices, three of whom have been on the court for more than 18 years, a commonly suggested tenure if term limits are imposed.
Former President Trump immediately criticized Biden’s court reform suggestions.
“The Democrats are attempting to interfere in the Presidential Election and destroy our Justice System, by attacking their Political Opponent, ME, and our Honorable Supreme Court,” he said on his Truth Social platform. “We have to fight for our Fair and Independent Courts and protect our Country.”
Aside from controversy over its rulings – not uncommon in a highly politicized U.S. election year – Democrats have criticized two of the conservative justices for what they contend are ethical failings.
Justice Clarence Thomas initially failed to disclose lavish gifts and luxury travel paid for by a real estate magnate, while the wife of Justice Samuel Alito flew flags suggesting allegiance with rioters, at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, who were trying to upend congressional certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory over Trump.
Alito refused Democratic calls to recuse himself from cases involving Trump.