Joe Biden has proposed sweeping reforms to the US Supreme Court accusing it of making “dangerous and extreme decisions” and losing the public’s trust.
The US president, who has been a frequent critic of the conservative-leaning court’s recent judgments, said its members should be subject to 18-year term limits and a “binding” code of conduct.
Writing in The Washington Post, he claimed the court was “mired in a crisis of ethics” and needed drastic reform to “restore trust and accountability”.
Mr Biden also proposed a constitutional amendment that would reverse a July 1 ruling in which the court ruled that Donald Trump and other former presidents have partial immunity from criminal prosecution for “official actions” during their time in the White House.
“What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms,” he said. “We now stand in a breach.”
Trump immunity
Earlier this month, the court split along partisan lines when it ruled that Trump could not be prosecuted for exercising his constitutional powers while in office, and had the “presumption of immunity” for his official acts.
Arguing that the decision turned presidents into “kings and dictators”, Mr Biden called for a constitutional amendment to “make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office”.
“I share our founders’ belief that the president’s power is limited, not absolute,” he added.
It marks Mr Biden’s first major intervention since he dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Kamala Harris just over a week ago.
Analysts said the president’s proposals were largely aspirational. Term-limits and a code of conduct would need Congressional approval, and are unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled House. A constitutional amendment would need two-thirds support in both the House and the Senate, or an even more far-fetched passage on state-level.
The president, a former chairman of the Senate’s judiciary committee, accused the court of making “dangerous and extreme decisions that overturn settled legal precedents” – such as ending the federal right to an abortion.
Six of the nine Supreme Court judges were appointed by Republican presidents. Three of them were put in place by Trump, while Mr Biden has appointed only one.
Members are not constrained by term or age limits, meaning their appointment is one of the most consequential decisions that a US president can make.
Mr Biden proposed that justices would spend a maximum of 18 years on the bench, with presidents appointing a new justice every two years.
“The United States is the only major constitutional democracy that gives lifetime seats to its High Court,” he wrote.
“Term limits would help ensure that the court’s membership changes with some regularity. That would make timing for court nominations more predictable and less arbitrary. It would reduce the chance that any single presidency radically alters the make-up of the court for generations to come.”
Code of conduct
Mr Biden also proposed a code of conduct following a series of controversies that he said had undermined public trust in the court.
“Scandals involving several justices have caused the public to question the court’s fairness and independence, which are essential to faithfully carrying out its mission of equal justice under the law,” he said.
“Justices should be required 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.”
Clarence Thomas, a conservative justice and one of its oldest and longest-serving members, has been the subject of controversy after failing to disclose a series of trips provided by a Republican billionaire donor.
Samuel Alito, another long-serving and conservative justice, came under scrutiny this year amid reports that flags associated with supporters of Donald Trump had been flown at two of his homes.
Thousands of constitutional amendments have been proposed, but only 27 approved in the history of the US.