His first time In a major policy announcement since dropping out of the 2024 race, President Joe Biden has endorsed sweeping reforms to the Supreme Court.
On Monday, the White House released a fact sheet noting that “recent ethics scandals involving some judges have led the public to question the fairness and independence necessary for the Court to faithfully carry out its mission of delivering justice for all Americans.”
Biden also supported implementing term limits for Supreme Court justices, as well as creating a binding ethics code that “would require judges 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.”
The president also called on Congress to overturn the Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity ruling, which was designed to help shield former President Donald Trump from accountability for his alleged crimes, and pass a constitutional amendment stating that “the Constitution grants no immunity from federal criminal indictment, trial, conviction, or sentence by virtue of prior service as President.”
The president accompanied his announcement with an opinion piece in The New York Times. Washington Post Present his reasons for the proposed reforms.
“In addition to the serious and extreme decisions that invalidate established legal precedents – including Roe v. Wade “The Court is in a moral crisis,” Biden wrote. “We can and must prevent abuses of presidential power. We can and must restore public confidence in the Supreme Court. We can and must strengthen the barriers of democracy.”
Current Vice President Kamala Harris, who is expected to replace Biden as the Democratic nominee in 2024, endorsed the proposals on Monday, writing in a statement that the reforms “will help restore confidence in the court, strengthen our democracy, and ensure that no one is above the law.”
“President Biden is right to lay out an ambitious plan that provides a blueprint for reforming and strengthening our democracy, which remains weakened by the unchecked corruption, partisanship, and lawlessness demonstrated by right-wing Supreme Court justices,” said Alex Aronson, executive director of the Judicial Accountability Foundation. rolling stone“This announcement will spur Congress to exercise its constitutional authority to investigate judicial corruption and abuse of power. Only through continued and rigorous oversight can we be confident that the Court’s decisions are based on the law, not the desires of outside interests.”
Top Democratic lawmakers have been calling for comprehensive legislation to reform the Supreme Court for years. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Ill.), called for passage of the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act earlier this year.
The Biden White House has chosen to commit to this issue relatively late: While the president has formed a commission to study potential reforms to the Supreme Court in 2021, he has done nothing with the court’s findings—even as the court’s conservative majority has issued a series of controversial rulings striking down federal protections for abortion rights, environmental rules, gun control laws, affirmative action policies, and protections for LGBT Americans—until now.
The push for reform comes after a series of ethics scandals involving Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. ProPublica reported that Thomas received private jet and luxury yacht rides for two decades from conservative billionaire Harlan Crow, but failed to disclose them. Crow also reportedly bought a house from Thomas, allowed the justice’s elderly mother to live there for free, and paid for two years of boarding school tuition for Thomas’s nephew.
last year, New York times A health insurance executive reportedly gave Thomas a loan — and later forgave a large portion of it — to Justice to buy a luxury recreational vehicle. rolling stone While the loan was still active, Thomas reportedly authored a Supreme Court opinion that broadly benefited the health insurance industry. Washington Post Separate reports said Leonard Leo, who helped assemble a conservative majority on the Supreme Court as Donald Trump's attorney general, secretly directed consulting payments to Thomas's wife.
The cloud of scandal has also extended to Justice Samuel Alito: ProPublica found that Paul Singer, a billionaire hedge fund boss who has work before the Supreme Court, offered Alito a free private jet trip to Alaska as part of an expensive fishing trip organized by Liu.
Thomas and Alito have faced calls to recuse themselves from the Supreme Court’s Jan. 6 cases, including one over Trump’s claims of presidential immunity. Thomas’s wife, Jenny, has supported Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, celebrated the Jan. 6 rally at the U.S. Capitol before it turned violent, and has privately urged state lawmakers to help overturn Biden’s victory. Alito and his wife, Martha Ann, have flown two flags at their residence that have been adopted by right-wing factions contesting the legitimacy of the 2020 election results.
Both Alito and Thomas refused to recuse themselves from the immunity case.
On July 1, the Supreme Court, at Trump’s request, ruled that presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts committed while in office. In his response to the ruling, Biden did not immediately support congressional action in relation to the court, but instead called on voters to “make a judgment about Donald Trump’s conduct.”
“The American people must decide whether Donald Trump’s attack on our democracy on January 6th makes him unfit for public office, the highest office in the land,” he said.
