“We need these reforms to restore trust in the Court,” Biden said in a speech marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the presidential library of former President Lyndon B. Johnson in Austin, Texas.
With 100 days left before the presidential election, President Joe Biden is making it clear he’s going out swinging … for democracy. At the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, on Monday afternoon, Biden made an emotional pitch for his new plan for Supreme Court reform, which would implement three changes to “strengthen the guardrails of democracy”:
- a constitutional amendment stripping the president of immunity for crimes committed while in office, dubbed the No One Is Above the Law Amendment.
- an 18-year term limit for justices, appointed by the president every two years. (Justices currently serve life tenures, while U.S. presidents are limited to two terms in office.)
- a binding code of conduct for the Court, which would require the justices to disclose gifts and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have financial or other conflicts of interest. (The ethics code adopted by the Court in November 2023 is voluntary and lacks an enforcement mechanism.)
The plan makes Biden the first sitting president in generations to propose such a sweeping reform to the judicial branch. The president’s speech honored the legacy of civil rights leaders like Lyndon B. Johnson, whose family was in attendance. Biden said he hopes the three-step plan will “restore confidence in the Court” during this period of historic low confidence in the institution. Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has also endorsed the changes.
“The courts determine the scale and scope of our laws. … In recent years, extreme opinions the Supreme Court has handed down have undermined long established civil rights principles and protections,” said Biden, naming four specific examples:
- 2013’s Shelby County v. Holder ruling, which gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1964;
- 2022’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion;
- the 2023 ruling striking down affirmative action in college admissions; and
- the 2024 decision in Trump v. United States, in which the Court said presidents have “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for all “official acts” took while in office.
“So many other civil rights that Americans take for granted are likely to come before the Court in years to come,” said Biden, warning of the Project 2025 agenda. And there is plenty more damage to be done by the Court—especially if a Republican president takes office, as writer Madiba Dennie outlined: “Project 2025’s to-do list identifies several recent Supreme Court decisions as springboards from which it can launch its sweeping policy proposals,” including a national abortion ban, destroying the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and limiting the power of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Upon taking office, Biden convened a bipartisan Presidential Commission on SCOTUS, “comprised of leading constitutional scholars, both liberal and conservative,” he said, whom he tasked to provide recommendations for potential Supreme Court changes. Biden spoke of the seriousness with which he approached Court reform, and said he tried to be “careful” about these deliberations “because these are serious, serious decisions in the face of increasing threats to American democratic institutions.” The three reforms introduced Monday were informed by the analysis of the commission.
“In two years, we will commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence,” Biden said on Monday. “Imagine that moment and ask yourself: What do we want to be? We can and must protect and expand our civil rights in America. We can and must prevent abuse of presidential power and restore faith and hope. We can and must strengthen the guardrails of democracy. We must remind ourselves who we are.”
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