US prez unveils top court reform plans, calls for term limits
US President Joe Biden unveiled plans on Monday to reform the conservativedominated Supreme Court, in a bold but long-shot move as he seeks to make a mark in his last six months in power.
In proposals backed by VicePresident Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic election nominee, Biden is calling for 18-year term limits for the top court’s justices and an enforceable ethics code.
The 81-year-old also wants a constitutional amendment to reverse the court’s recent ruling backing Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump’s claims of presidential immunity.
Biden’s move comes after a series of shock Supreme Court rulings such as the repeal of the nationwide right to abortion, and following a host of scandals involving the top court’s lifetime-appointed justices.
The plans have almost no hope of getting through a deeply divided US Congress but could motivate Democratic voters in the November 2024 election, from which Biden dropped out just over a week ago.
“What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms,” Biden said in an opinion piece in the Washington Post. “We now stand in a breach.” Biden said the proposals also reflected the principle that “no one is above the law. Not the president of the United States. Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. No one.”
Harris said in a separate statement that “President Biden and I are calling on Congress to pass important reforms” to the court. “These popular reforms will help to restore confidence in the Court, strengthen our democracy, and ensure no one is above the law,” she said.