US President Joe Biden will propose on Monday Radical reforms to the Supreme Courtincluding term limits and a binding code of conduct for its nine justices, but with Congress deeply divided, the changes have little chance of becoming law.
Biden has planned to propose the changes, as well as a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad presidential immunityduring a speech at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas.
“This nation was founded on a simple but profound principle: No one is above the law. Not the president of the United States. Not a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. No one,” Biden said in an op-ed published Monday in The Washington Post.
Biden’s push for reforms comes a week after Biden put an end to his re-election bid and will endorse Vice President Kamala Harris to face Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in November.
It also comes after the Supreme Court ruled there is no constitutional right to abortion and other decisions that blocked Biden’s agenda on immigration, student loans, vaccine mandates and climate change.
Unlike other members of the federal judiciary, lifelong Supreme Court justices do not have a binding code of ethics. They are subject to disclosure laws that require them to declare outside income and certain gifts, although food and other “personal entertainment,” such as lodging at a person’s residence, are typically exempt.
In November, the court adopted its first code of conduct following revelations that Justice Clarence Thomas had accepted undeclared travel from a wealthy benefactor. There were also reports this year that flags associated with then-President Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat were flown outside Justice Samuel Alito’s homes in Virginia and New Jersey.
Critics say the code of conduct does not go far enough as it allows judges to decide for themselves whether to recuse themselves from cases and provides no enforcement mechanism.
Biden will ask Congress to pass binding, enforceable rules requiring judges to disclose gifts, refrain from public political activities and recuse themselves from cases where they or their spouses have financial or other conflicts of interest, the White House said.
He will also urge Congress to adopt an 18-year term limit for Supreme Court justices, according to the White House.
Legislation would be needed to impose term limits and an ethics code on the Supreme Court, but that is unlikely to pass in the currently divided Congress.
Biden will also propose a constitutional amendment to make clear that having been president does not guarantee immunity from federal criminal charges, trials, convictions or sentences.
Such an amendment would be even more difficult to enact, requiring support by two-thirds of both houses of Congress or a convention called by two-thirds of the states, and then ratification by 38 of the 50 state legislatures.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in July that Trump cannot be prosecuted for actions that were within his constitutional powers as president, in a landmark decision that for the first time recognizes any form of presidential immunity from prosecution.
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