Biden proposes term limits, binding code of conduct for Supreme Court

WASHINGTON >> President Joe Biden today proposed sweeping changes to the U.S. Supreme Court, including term limits and a binding code of conduct for the nine justices. But opposition from Republicans in Congress makes the proposals unlikely to pass.

Biden called on Congress to adopt binding and enforceable rules requiring the justices 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. He also urged the imposition of an 18-year term limit for the justices, who currently serve life terms.

Biden called for the revision, as well as a constitutional amendment to repeal the broad presidential immunity recognized in a July 1 Supreme Court ruling regarding former President Donald Trump, in an op-ed published in the Washington Post.

He will deliver a speech on the subject later today at the presidential library of former President Lyndon B. Johnson in Austin, Texas, during an event marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a landmark federal law against discrimination.

“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 wrote in the op-ed.

Biden ended his re-election bid last week, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee to face Trump, the Republican nominee, in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election. Biden, who earlier in his presidency created a commission to study changes to the Supreme Court, has nominated one of the nine justices, liberal Ketanji Brown Jackson.

“In our democracy, no one should be above the law, and we must ensure that no former president has immunity for crimes committed in the White House,” Harris, a former prosecutor and California attorney general, said in a statement today.

The leading Republican in Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson, called Biden’s proposals an attempt to “delegitimize the court” and said the changes would not be considered by the chamber, which is controlled by his party.

“This dangerous move by the Biden-Harris administration is dead on arrival in the House of Representatives,” Johnson said in a statement.

The Republican National Committee called the proposals part of a plan to pack the Supreme Court with “radical, left-wing judges.”

Since the court reached a 6-3 conservative majority in 2020, bolstered by the three justices appointed by Trump, American law has shifted to the right.

In its immunity decision, the court ruled that Trump cannot be prosecuted for actions within his constitutional powers as president in a federal criminal case over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. It was the court’s first recognition of any form of presidential immunity from prosecution.

The court has also in recent years revoked recognition of the constitutional right to abortion, expanded gun rights, and rejected college admissions based on race, and blocked Biden’s agenda on immigration, student loans, COVID vaccine mandates and climate change.

NEW CODE OF CONDUCT

Unlike other members of the federal judiciary, Supreme Court justices do not have a mandatory code of ethics. Disclosure laws require them to report outside income and certain gifts, though food and other “personal hospitality” such as lodging in someone’s home are generally exempt.

The court adopted its first code of conduct in November following revelations that Justice Clarence Thomas accepted undisclosed trips from a wealthy benefactor. Justice Samuel Alito also faced criticism from Democrats after reports that flags linked to Trump’s bid to overturn his 2020 loss flew outside his homes in Virginia and New Jersey. Alito said his wife had flown the flags.

Critics call the new code of conduct inadequate, as judges are free to decide for themselves whether to withdraw from a case and there is no enforcement mechanism.

Legislation would be needed to impose term limits and an ethics code. Such legislation is unlikely to pass Congress, as Democrats control the Senate and Republicans control the House.

The amendment to the Constitution that Biden proposed to make clear that having served as president does not make someone immune from federal criminal charges, trials, convictions or sentencing would be even harder to implement.

This requires a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate, or a convention called by two-thirds of the states. Then 38 of the 50 state legislatures must ratify the bill.

Trump is the first former president to be indicted — charged in four separate cases, though one was dismissed — and the first to be convicted. A jury in New York state court found him guilty in May on felony charges related to paying hush money to a porn star to prevent a sex scandal before the 2016 election.

Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Doina Chiacu.