President Joe Biden is set to call on Monday for an overhaul of the Supreme Court and a constitutional amendment limiting his powers — reforms that have failed to materialize but demonstrate his priorities in his final months in office.
Biden plans to deliver speeches in the afternoon at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, where former presidents have called for constitutional amendments. any immunity From federal criminal charges, trials, convictions or sentences, according to a White House official.
The amendment is consistent with Biden’s amendments recent statements “No president is above the law,” he said and repeated several times The Supreme Court said some actions related to the office of the president cannot be brought to criminal liability. The ruling favors former President Donald Trump in the criminal cases against him and could allow other former presidents to avoid certain criminal charges in the future.
Biden also wants Congress to create term limits for members of the Supreme Court, a White House official told NBC News, adding that Biden favors an 18-year term for justices that he believes would prevent any president from having a multi-generational influence on the judiciary.
In addition to term limits, Biden will urge Congress to subject the Supreme Court to ethics requirements applicable to other federal judges regarding gifts, political activities and financial dealings.
Biden will make his proposals at a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The event was rescheduled the day after the July 13 campaign assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania. Biden was expected to unveil his plans next Monday, but instead stayed at the White House during his administration’s preliminary investigation into the shooting.
In it appeal to the nation After recovering from Covid-19 last week, Biden explained why he chose to suspend his re-election campaign and how he plans to spend his final months in office. He later hinted that he would support major changes to the Supreme Court.
“I will call for reform of the Supreme Court because it is so important to our democracy,” Biden said from the Oval Office.
This was reported by NBC News This month, Biden planned to approve a series of reforms to the court and alerted members of Congress of his thoughts.
Early in his political career, Biden was reluctant to support significant changes to the Supreme Court. The shift in his public stance towards judicial reform follows the recent controversy over the Judiciary Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and rulings led by conservative majorities on issues such as abortion rights — decisions that Biden has harshly criticized. Biden he told the crowd at the fundraiser Last month, the Supreme Court “has never been faster than it is now”.
Last week, Justice Elena Kagan became the first member of the court Calling for a stronger code of ethics in speeches at an annual judicial conference in California on Thursday. He signed the Supreme Court’s new ethics code last year, but said in a speech last week that it needed an enforcement mechanism.
“Both in terms of enforcing the rules against people who break them, and in terms of protecting people who don’t break them — I think that kind of system makes sense,” Kagan said.
Even with the president’s push for reform, such legislation is unlikely to pass Congress. Before dropping his presidential bid, Biden clashed with House Democrats, saying he would need their help to pass the changes — and likely convince some Republicans to cross the aisle, given his House majority and narrow Democratic majority. Senate.
Senate Democrats introduced Supreme Court reforms last year, but Republican opposition blocked the effort last month.