Biden proposes dramatic changes to Supreme Court

On Monday, President Joseph R. Biden (D) introduced broad proposal he claims are necessary "to reform the Supreme Court and ensure no president is above the law."

President Biden wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post that his proposals are necessary to restore public trust in the judicial system.

"We can and must prevent the abuse of presidential power and restore the public's faith in our judicial system."

Biden is upset that the current Supreme Court has made a number of rulings that thwarted his plans – in particular a decision on July 1 that has put in jeopardy federal cases the Biden Justice Department has brought against former President Donald J. Trump (R) – the Republican nominee for President of the United States.

"The Supreme Court's 6-3 decision on July 1 to grant presidents broad immunity from prosecution for crimes they commit in office means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do," Biden wrote. The only limits will be those that are self-imposed by the person occupying the Oval Office."

Biden had hoped to prosecute Trump for the protests on Jan. 6, 2021; but the ruling means that in all likelihood that those prosecutions will fail.

Biden claimed that there are ethical concerns with the current Supreme Court.

"On top of dangerous and extreme decisions that overturn settled legal precedents - including Roe v. Wade - the court is mired in a crisis of ethics," Biden continued. "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. For example, undisclosed gifts to justices from individuals with interests in cases before the court, as well as conflicts of interest connected with Jan. 6 insurrectionists, raise legitimate questions about the court's impartiality."

Biden has proposed three reforms which he claims are necessary.

"First, I am calling for a constitutional amendment called the No One Is Above the Law Amendment," stated President Biden. "It would make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office."

"Second, we have had term limits for presidents for nearly 75 years," said Biden. "We should have the same for Supreme Court justices. The United States is the only major constitutional democracy that gives lifetime seats to its high court. 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 makeup of the court for generations to come."

Biden also proposed giving the DOJ authority to discipline members of the Supreme Court.

"Third, I'm calling for a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court," Biden continued. "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."

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said that the President's proposals are "dead on arrival" in Congress.

"President Biden's proposal to radically overhaul the U.S. Supreme Court would tilt the balance of power and erode not only the rule of law, but the American people's faith in our system of justice," said Speaker Johnson. "This proposal is the logical conclusion to the Biden-Harris Administration and Congressional Democrats' ongoing efforts to delegitimize the Supreme Court. Their calls to expand and pack the Court will soon resume."

"It is telling that Democrats want to change the system that has guided our nation since its founding simply because they disagree with some of the Court's recent decisions," Johnson continued. "This dangerous gambit of the Biden-Harris Administration is dead on arrival in the House."

The Republican controlled House of Representatives will not bring these changes to the floor and if the narrow Senate Democratic majority did bring them up for a vote there they don't have the votes to get the super majority needed to pass an amendment to the Constitution. Red state legislatures would be unlikely to ratify any amendment that Biden proposes and an act of Congress putting the Court underneath the authority of an executive branch agency would likely be ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on separation of powers reasons.

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