Biden unveils plan for Supreme Court changes, says US at ‘break point’ as public trust plummets

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is unveiling a long-awaited proposal for changes to the U.S. Supreme Court, calling on Congress to adopt term limits and an ethics code for the court’s nine justices. He is also urging lawmakers to ratify a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity.

The White House laid out the outline of Biden’s court proposal on Monday, but it appears unlikely that Congress will approve it with just 99 days to go until Election Day.

Still, Democrats hope it will help voters focus as they weigh their options in a close election. The presumptive Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, has tried to cast her race against former Republican President Donald Trump as “a choice between freedom and chaos.”

The White House is seeking to capitalize on growing outrage among Democrats over the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority and has issued rulings that overturned landmark decisions on abortion rights and federal regulatory powers that had been in place for decades.

Liberals, too, have expressed dismay at revelations about what they call controversial relationships and decisions by some members of the court’s conservative wing, which suggest their impartiality is in question.

“I have great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers,” Biden argued in an op-ed in the Washington Post published Monday. “What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines public confidence in the court’s decisions, including those that impinge on personal liberties. We are now in the midst of a breach.”

The president was scheduled to discuss his proposal later Monday during a speech at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.

Biden is calling for an end to lifetime appointments to the court. He says Congress should pass legislation to set up a system in which the sitting president appoints a justice every two years who has served on the court for 18 years. He argues that term limits would help ensure that the court’s membership changes with some regularity and add a degree of predictability to the nomination process.

He also wants Congress to pass legislation establishing a code of ethics for judges, which would require judges to disclose gifts, refrain from public political activity and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their partners have financial or other conflicts of interest.

Biden is also calling on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment that would reverse the Supreme Court’s recent landmark immunity ruling, which granted former presidents broad immunity from prosecution.

The decision extended the criminal case in Washington against Trump, who was accused of trying to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election, and virtually eliminated the chances of the former president being tried before the November election.

The last time Congress ratified an amendment to the Constitution was 32 years ago. The 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, says that Congress can pass a bill to change the compensation of members of the House and Senate, but such a change cannot go into effect until after the next House elections in November.

Trump has criticized the court overhaul as a desperate attempt by Democrats to “play referee.”

“The Democrats are attempting to interfere in the Presidential election and destroy our justice system by attacking their political opponent, ME, and our honorable Supreme Court. We must fight for our fair and independent courts and protect our country,” Trump posted on his Truth Social site earlier this month.

Questions have grown about the court’s ethics following revelations about some of the justices, including the allegation that Clarence Thomas accepted lavish trips from a GOP megadonor.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who was appointed during the Obama administration, came under fire after it came to light that her staff often encouraged public institutions that hosted her to purchase copies of her memoirs or children’s books.

Justice Samuel Alito has rejected calls to recuse himself from Supreme Court cases involving Trump and the Jan. 6 defendants, despite the outcry over provocative flags displayed outside his home that some believe suggest sympathy for people charged with storming the U.S. Capitol to keep Trump in power. Alito says the flags were displayed by his wife.

Trump congratulated Alito on his social media site at the time for showing “INTELLIGENCE, COURAGE and ‘GUTS’” by refusing to step aside. “All American judges, justices and leaders should have such GRIT.”

Democrats say Biden’s efforts will draw attention to recent Supreme Court rulings, including the 2022 decision that struck down women’s constitutional protections for abortions by the conservative-majority court, which includes three justices appointed by Trump.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said in an interview Sunday with CNN’s “State of the Union” that Biden’s reform effort is meant to remind Americans that “when they vote in November, the Supreme Court will be on the ballot.”

She added: “That’s a good reason to vote for Kamala Harris and for the Democrats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.”

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina objected that Democrats did not complain when a more liberal-leaning court “issued opinions that they liked.”

“It wasn’t until we restored the constitutional balance by having a conservative court that the court became a threat to the country,” Graham said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “What is a threat to the country is an excessively liberal court that issues opinions that essentially take over every walk of American life based on the judgment of nine people.”

The announcement marks a notable evolution for Biden, who as a candidate was wary of calls to overhaul the high court. But over the course of his presidency, he has become increasingly vocal about his belief that the court has abandoned mainstream constitutional interpretation.

Last week, in a speech at the White House, he announced that he would spend his final months in office pursuing reforms to the Supreme Court, calling them “critical to our democracy.”

Harris, in her failed bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, had indicated she was open to discussing expanding the nine-member court. The proposals unveiled Monday did not include such an effort, something Biden viewed with skepticism as a candidate.

As a vice presidential candidate, Harris conspicuously dodged questions about her previous stance on the issue during her October 2020 debate with Vice President Mike Pence.

Harris’ campaign and aides to the vice president did not respond to questions about Harris’ involvement in shaping Biden’s proposal or whether she would pursue other justice reforms if elected.

The White House said in a statement: “Biden and Vice President Harris look forward to working with Congress to empower the American people to prevent abuses of presidential power, restore confidence in the Supreme Court, and expand the boundaries of democracy.”

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Associated Press Editor Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.