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U.S. President Joe Biden, who recently had to withdraw his candidacy for this November’s presidential election, called for extensive reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court six months before the end of his term.
On August 8, Mr. Biden, speaking at a ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act, again expressed dissatisfaction that the Supreme Court’s decision to grant presidents immunity from criminal prosecution allowed them to be above the law and enjoy a king-like status.
Joe Biden believes that “extremism” has undermined public trust in the U.S. Supreme Court, and to that end he has asked Congress to establish term limits and an enforceable code of ethics for the court’s nine justices.
The US President also explained his reforms to the Supreme Court in an article published in The Washington Post on August 8.
What is the current situation in the Supreme Court?
Currently, the majority of the Supreme Court justices are conservative; all six conservative justices were appointed by Republican presidents, while the other three were appointed by Democratic presidents.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has appointed three conservative judges during his four years as president to replace deceased judges on the body and significantly shift the balance in their favor.
The nine justices of the Supreme Court will continue to serve in that position until their last day unless they want to retire.
The court’s conservative majority allowed them to make a series of historic and controversial decisions, the most significant of which was the overturning of a 1973 ruling on abortion in all states.
The conservative justices also ruled in another controversial ruling in which Trump sought to avoid his own trial that the president is entitled to immunity for all of his “official” (not personal) actions.
Opponents of the ruling said at the time that it would place the president above the law and exempt him from trial when errors are made because every action the president takes can be defined as being “within the scope of his duties.”
Democrats say the current composition of judges is too conservative and sharply contradicts the views of the American people, who have voted for Democratic candidates in six of the seven presidential elections over the past 25 years.
What are the reforms Joe Biden is proposing?
The Democratic president of the United States wants to approve a binding rule of conduct for the Supreme Court.
Not accepting any kind of rewards and gifts, avoiding any public political activities, and requiring exemptions from intervening in cases in which the judge himself or his wife may have a financial interest are among the changes Joe Biden is considering.
Joe Biden also stressed the need for term limits for judges on the Supreme Court seat, so he wants to change the lifelong membership of the Supreme Court. However, the term of office for Supreme Court judges proposed by Joe Biden is a long term of 18 years.
Earlier, Representative Hank Johnson, an ally of Joe Biden, introduced a similar Supreme Court reform proposal, the Johnson Act, and he emphasized “fundamental and structural changes” to the court.
Mr. Johnson argued that each president could appoint new Supreme Court justices only in the first and third years of his four-year term.
Currently, there are three judges on the Supreme Court, with terms lasting more than 18 years.
If the president can only appoint two judges during his four-year term, he will no longer be able to arbitrarily appoint judges from his intellectual and political camp to the Supreme Court as he did during the Trump era.
Some polls show that a majority of Americans support term limits for Supreme Court justices. An Associated Press poll last summer found that 67% of U.S. voters, including 82% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans, supported such a change.
If 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices are passed, the first three justices to lose their seats would be conservatives: Clarence Thomas, who has served for 33 years; John Roberts, who has been on the court for 19 years; and Samuel Alito, who has been a justice on the court for 18 years.
According to historical research, since the creation of the Supreme Court, the average length of service for justices has been 17 years (until death), but since the 1970s, this relative length has increased to around 28 years.
Where do Trump and Harris stand on Biden’s proposal?
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Democrats want to “destroy” the Supreme Court.
Trump stressed the need to “work to protect fair and independent courts” and accused Democrats of trying to interfere in the upcoming election.
However, Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee in the November election, immediately endorsed the proposed changes to the Supreme Court, stressing that the reforms would “restore public trust.”
Ms. Harris, herself a longtime prosecutor in several states, including California, wrote that the proposed reforms “will strengthen the nation’s democracy and ensure that no one is above the law.”
Any changes to the Supreme Court would have to be approved by Congress, and getting a majority that would enact such reforms is considered difficult given the deep divisions between Democrats and Republicans and some internal disagreements among members of both parties.
It has been 32 years since Congress last passed a constitutional amendment.
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