WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden revealed A long-running proposal for changes to the US Supreme Court, calls on Congress to establish term limits and an enforceable code of ethics for the court’s nine justices. He is pushing lawmakers to approve a constitutional amendment limiting presidential immunity.
The White House on Monday outlined the contours of Biden’s court proposal, which still has 99 days to go before a closely divided Congress has little chance of being approved. Election day.
Still, Democrats hope it will help center voters considering their options in a tight election. Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris has been trying to build her race against former Republican President Donald Trump. “A Choice Between Freedom and Chaos” He said the fairness of the court has been called into question following recent decisions.
The White House is tapping into growing anger among Democrats about the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority. Canceled major decisions Abortion rights and Federal Regulatory Powers It stood for decades.
Liberals have also expressed dismay at revelations about what they say are questionable relationships and decisions by some members of the court’s conservative wing, which they say compromises their impartiality.
“I have great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers,” Biden argued in a Washington Post op-ed published Monday.
Harris later issued a statement saying that the American people should have a hope Supreme Court Plagued by ethical scandals and long-standing paradigm-shifting decisions. The proposed reforms will help restore confidence in the judiciary, strengthen our democracy and ensure that no one is above the law,” he said.
The president plans to speak on his proposal later Monday An address at the LBJ Presidential Library In Austin, Texas, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.
Biden calls on the court to eliminate lifetime appointments. He says Congress should pass legislation to establish a system in which a sitting president appoints a judge every two years to serve 18 years on the court. He argues that term limits can help ensure that court membership changes with some regularity and add a level of predictability to the appointment process.
He also wants Congress to pass legislation establishing court ethics requiring judges to disclose gifts, stay out of public political activities and recuse themselves from cases involving financial or other conflicts of interest for themselves or their spouses.
Biden is calling on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment that would reverse the Supreme Court’s latest Critical Immunity Judgment It held that former presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution.
The decision extended the delay in the Washington criminal case against Trump 2020 presidential election conspired to defeat defeat All but the possibility that the former president could be tried before the November election has ended.
Polls show Americans approve of how long justices serve on the nation’s highest court. Last summer, a poll Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research It found that 67% of Americans, including 82% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans, support a proposal to set a fixed number of years for judges to serve instead of life terms.
The top three justices affected by term limits are on the right. Justice Clarence Thomas has been on the court for nearly 33 years. Chief Justice John Roberts served for 19 years and Justice Samuel Alito for 18 years.
Supreme Court justices served an average of about 17 years since its founding in 1970, said Gabe Roth, executive director of the group Fix the Court. Since 1970, the average is about 28 years. Both conservative and liberal politicians have emphasized term limits.
“If judges have that much power, they should be people who reflect America, not the America of 30 or 40 years ago, when the dead hand of the president who appointed them is still influencing policy,” Roth said.
Meanwhile, an enforcement mechanism for the high court’s ethics could bring Supreme Court justices more in line with other federal judges, who are subject to a disciplinary system in which anyone can complain and have it reconsidered. An investigation may result in censure and censure. Last week, Justice Elena Kagan A public call was made to develop a way to implement the new Code of EthicsHe was the first judge to do so.
However, when it comes to the Supreme Court, creating a mechanism to enforce a code of conduct is not as easy as it sounds.
The attorney general has always had the power to override financial and gift disclosure rules, but has never used that power against federal judges, said Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics expert at the NYU School of Law.
Meanwhile, the body that oversees lower court justices, led by Roberts, “may be reluctant to use any authority in the conference against his colleagues,” Gillers wrote in an email.
It was 32 years ago that Congress approved the Constitutional Amendment. The 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, says Congress can pass a bill to change the pay for members of the House and Senate, but no such change can take effect until elections are held for the House next November.
Trump has dismissed court reform as a desperate effort by Democrats.
“Democrats are trying to interfere in the presidential election and destroy our justice system by attacking their political enemy ME and our honorable Supreme Court. We must fight for our fair and independent courts and protect our country,” Trump wrote on his Truth Community site this month. posted
Questions surrounding the court’s ethics are mounting after revelations about some of its judges, including Thomas accepted luxury trips From a GOP megadonor.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor, an Obama administration appointee, has faced scrutiny following revelations that her staff fueled public institutions that frequented her. Buy copies of her memoir or children’s books.
Trump and Jan. 6, 2021, Trump and Jan. 6, 2021 Alito rejected calls to recuse himself from Supreme Court cases involving rebel defendants, despite provocative flags displayed at his homes, some believe to be sympathetic to those facing charges of attacking the U.S. Capitol to keep Trump in power. . Alito says the flags were pointed out by his wife.
Democrats say the Biden effort will help shine a spotlight on recent high court rulings, including the 2022 ruling. Eliminate women’s constitutional protections for abortionby a conservative-majority court that includes three justices appointed by Trump.
The announcement marks a significant evolution for Biden, who as a candidate has been wary of calls to reform the high court. But during his presidency, he became increasingly vocal about his belief that the Court had abandoned mainstream constitutional interpretation.
Last week, during an Oval Office speech, he announced that he would pursue Supreme Court reform in his final months in office. “Crucial to our democracy.”
___
Associated Press writers Mark Sherman, Lindsay Whitehurst and Michael L. Price contributed to this report.
