U.S. Supreme Court Justices attend as U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., March 7, 2024.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
President Joe Biden on Monday unveiled a three-pronged proposal to reform the Supreme Court, a policy area that he said will be a focus of his remaining months in office.
Biden is calling for term limits on Supreme Court justices, a binding ethics code and a constitutional amendment declaring that presidents do not have immunity from criminal prosecution for any crimes committed while in office.
That proposed amendment, titled the “No One Is Above the Law Amendment,” responds to the Supreme Court’s controversial ruling earlier in July that declared former President Donald Trump immune from criminal prosecution for “official acts” he committed as president.
Biden’s proposed ethics code comes after several Supreme Court justices, including Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, were caught in scandals involving undisclosed financial gifts that posed major conflicts of interest.
Over the course of his administration, Biden has grown louder about his criticisms of the majority conservative high court, which has repealed federal abortion protections, limited the use of affirmative action in college admissions and struck down the president’s student debt relief program.
Following the Supreme Court’s 6-3 immunity ruling, Biden issued a full-throated condemnation: “This decision today has continued the Court’s attack in recent years on a wide range of long-established legal principles in our nation, from gutting voting rights and civil rights to taking away a woman’s right to choose to today’s decision that undermines the rule of law of this nation.”
Biden’s new reform plan comes just over a week since he dropped out of the race against Trump and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him. As he works to cement his legacy in the just under six months he has left as president, Biden said that overhauling the Supreme Court will be a priority.
“I’m going to call for Supreme Court reform because this is critical to our democracy,” Biden said in a national address from the Oval Office last Wednesday.
Turning his proposals into law, however, will require congressional approval, which will be an uphill battle given the current partisan split in Congress. In particular, a new constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority approval from both the House and the Senate.
The president is set to address his new reform proposals at his speech in Texas at the LBJ Presidential Library later Monday.