U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday will propose sweeping reforms to the Supreme Court .
Biden will propose the changes, including term limits and a binding code of conduct for its nine justices, but a deeply-divided Congress means the changes have little chance of becoming law.
“This nation was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law. Not the president of the U.S.
”Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the U.S. No one,” Biden said in an op-ed published in the Washington Post on Monday.
The White House said that the Supreme Court justices who are appointed by presidents and confirmed by the Senate, have been overturning “long-established legal precedents protecting fundamental rights.”
It said, the court’s 6-3 conservative majority “has gutted civil rights protections, taken away a woman’s right to choose, and now granted president’s broad immunity from prosecution for crimes committed in office,”
The White House said referring to a recent decision impacting former president Donald Trump’s criminal cases.
Biden’s reforms would strip the justices of their lifetime appointments. The president is proposing an 18-year term.
In an opinion piece written for the Washington Post, Biden said that term limits would “reduce the chance that any single presidency radically alters the make-up of the court for generations to come.”
The second major reform is the White House calls “binding, enforceable conduct and ethics rules” for the nine judges.
It would require them to disclose gifts, refrain from political activity, and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouse have conflicts of interest.
Biden said the current voluntary ethics code was “weak and self-enforced.”
“Every other federal judge is bound by an enforceable code of conduct, and there is no reason for the Supreme Court to be exempt,” he wrote in the Washington Post.
Separate from the functioning of the court, Biden also called on Monday for a constitutional amendment which would declare that former presidents are not immune from crimes committed in office.
This amendment “will state that the Constitution does not confer any immunity from federal criminal indictment, trial, conviction, or sentencing under previously serving as president.”
A historic six-three Supreme Court ruling this month handed Trump a major victory by finding that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.
Biden’s proposals would have to be approved by a divided Congress, a highly unlikely prospect and a particularly high threshold of support would be needed for any constitutional amendment regarding former presidents.
But the reforms are popular among Biden’s Democrats and could help propel supporters to the polls on Nov. 5, when Trump is set to face off against Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris. (dpa/NAN)
