Biden decries ‘extremism’ on Supreme Court, details plan for term limits, ethics code for justices

AUSTIN, Texas — President Joe Biden said Monday that “extremism” on the U.S. Supreme Court is undermining public confidence in the institution and called on Congress to quickly establish term limits and an enforceable ethics code for the court’s nine justices. He also called on lawmakers to ratify a constitutional amendment limiting presidential immunity.

Biden, who has less than six months left in his presidency, detailed the contours of his court proposal in an address at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, where he was marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. His calls for dramatic changes in the court have little chance of being approved by a closely divided Congress with 99 days to go before Election Day.

Still, Democrats hope it’ll help focus voters as they consider their choices in a tight election. The likely Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, who has sought to frame her race against Republican ex-President Donald Trump as “a choice between freedom and chaos,” quickly endorsed the Biden proposal.

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“Extremism is undermining the public confidence in the court’s decisions,” Biden said. He added, “We can and must prevent abuse of presidential power and restore faith in the Supreme Court.”

The White House is looking to tap into the growing outrage among Democrats about the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, issuing opinions that overturned landmark decisions on abortion rights and federal regulatory powers that stood for decades.

Liberals also have expressed dismay over revelations about what they say are questionable relationships and decisions by some members of the conservative wing of the court that suggest their impartiality is compromised.

Biden pointed to the 2013 high court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade and rolling back abortion rights, and a 2023 decision “eviscerating” affirmative action in college admission programs as three prime examples of what he saw as “outrageous” decisions that have shaken Americans’ faith in the high court.

Harris, in a statement, said the reforms being proposed are needed because “there is a clear crisis of confidence facing the Supreme Court.”

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson called the proposal a “dangerous gambit” that would be “dead on arrival in the House.”

Biden in a brief exchange with reporters ahead of his address shrugged off Johnson’s pronouncement that the proposal is going nowhere. “I think that’s what he is — dead on arrival,” Biden offered. He added that he would “figure out a way” to get it done.

Biden is calling for doing away with lifetime appointments to the court. He says Congress should pass legislation to establish a system in which the sitting president would appoint a justice every two years to spend 18 years in service on the court. He argues term limits would help ensure that court membership changes with some regularity and “reduce the chance that any single president imposes undue influence for generations to come.”

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

Biden also is calling on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment reversing the Supreme Court’s recent landmark immunity ruling that determined former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution.

That decision extended the delay in the Washington criminal case against Trump on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss and all but ended prospects the former president could be tried before the November election.

“This nation was founded on the principle there are no kings in America,” Biden said. “Each of us are equal before the law. No one is above the law. For all practical purposes, the court’s decision almost certainly means the president can violate their oath, flout our laws, and face no consequences.”

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Most Americans supported some form of age limit for Supreme Court justices in an AP-NORC poll from August 2023. Two-thirds wanted Supreme Court justices to be required to retire by a certain age. Democrats were more likely than Republicans to favor a mandatory retirement age, 77% to 61%. Americans across age groups tend to agree on the desire for age limits — those age 60 and over were as likely as any other age group to be in favor of this limit for Supreme Court justices.

The first three justices who would potentially be affected by term limits are on the right. Justice Clarence Thomas has been on the court for nearly 33 years. Chief Justice John Roberts has served for 19 years, and Justice Samuel Alito has served for 18.

Supreme Court justices served an average of about 17 years from the founding until 1970, said Gabe Roth, executive director of the group Fix the Court. Since 1970, the average has been about 28 years. Both conservative and liberal politicians alike have espoused term limits.

An enforcement mechanism for the high court’s code of ethics, meanwhile, could bring the Supreme Court justices more in line with other federal judges, who are subject to a disciplinary system in which anyone can file a complaint and have it reviewed. An investigation can result in censure and reprimand. Last week, Justice Elena Kagan called publicly for creating a way to enforce the new ethics code, becoming the first justice to do so.

The last time Congress ratified an amendment to the Constitution was 32 years ago. The 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, states that Congress can pass a bill changing the pay for members of the House and the Senate, but such a change can’t take effect until after the next November elections are held for the House.

Trump has decried court reform as a desperate attempt by Democrats to “Play the Ref.”

“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 have to fight for our Fair and Independent Courts, and protect our Country,” Trump posted on his Truth Social site this month.

There have been increasing questions surrounding the ethics of the court after revelations about some of the justices, including that Thomas accepted luxury trips from a GOP megadonor.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was appointed during the Obama administration, has faced scrutiny after it surfaced her staff often prodded public institutions that hosted her to buy copies of her memoir or children’s books.

Alito rejected calls to step aside from Supreme Court cases involving Trump and Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection defendants despite a flap over provocative flags displayed at his homes that some believe suggested sympathy to people facing charges over storming the U.S. Capitol to keep Trump in power. Alito says the flags were displayed by his wife.

“These scandals involving the justices have caused public opinion to question the court’s fairness and independence that are essential to basically carrying its mission of equal justice under the law,” Biden said.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell pushed back that Biden’s proposal amounted to taking a “torch” to the “crown jewel of our system of government.”

“President Biden and his leftist allies don’t like the current composition of the court so they want to shred the Constitution to change it,” McConnell said.