Biden proposes term limits, code of conduct to rein in 'extreme' Supreme Court

[July 30, 2024]  By Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) -President Joe Biden on Monday proposed sweeping changes to the U.S. Supreme Court that he said were needed to rein in a conservative-led court that was being weaponized to undermine established civil rights principles and protections.

Biden said he would work with Congress to enact a series of reforms, including term limits and a binding code of conduct, but immediate opposition voiced by Republicans in Congress means the proposals have little chance of enactment.

"We need these reforms to restore trust in the court," Biden said in a speech marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 at the presidential library of former President Lyndon B. Johnson in Austin, Texas.

Biden called on Congress to pass binding and enforceable rules that would require the 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. He also urged the adoption of an 18-year term limit for the justices, who currently serve life tenures.

"I believe the best structure is the 18-year term limit. That would ensure that the country does not have what it has now - an extreme court ... that has been weaponized by those seeking to carry out an extreme agenda for decades to come," Biden said.

Most OECD countries either have term limits or a mandatory retirement age, or both, for judges serving on their top court.

Biden last week ended his reelection bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate to face Trump, the Republican nominee, in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election.

Earlier in his presidency, Biden convened a commission to study Supreme Court changes. He has appointed one of the nine justices, liberal Ketanji Brown Jackson.

On Monday, he also proposed a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad presidential immunity recognized in a July 1 Supreme Court ruling involving former President Donald Trump, warning that the ruling set a dangerous precedent that could see grave abuses in the future.

Harris, a former prosecutor and California attorney general, said in a statement on Monday that "in our democracy, no one should be above the law. So we must also ensure that no former president has immunity for crimes committed while in the White House."

The top congressional Republican, House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, called Biden's proposals an effort to "delegitimize the court," and said the changes would not be considered by the chamber, which his party controls.

"This dangerous gambit of the Biden-Harris administration is dead on arrival in the House," Johnson said in a statement.

The Republican National Committee called the proposals part of a scheme to pack the Supreme Court with "far-left, radical judges."

A security guard walks down the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., July 19, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/File Photo

Asked about Johnson's comments, Biden quipped to reporters that Johnson's thinking was dead on arrival and said he would figure out a way to get the reforms passed.

Since the court in 2020 reached a 6-3 conservative majority, cemented with Trump's three appointees, it has moved American law rightward.

In its immunity ruling, the court decided that Trump, in a federal criminal case involving his efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss, cannot be prosecuted for actions that were within his constitutional powers as president.

The court in recent years also has ended its recognition of a constitutional right to abortion, expanded gun rights, and rejected race-conscious collegiate admissions, as well as blocking Biden's agenda on immigration, student loans, COVID vaccine mandates and climate change.

NEW CODE OF CONDUCT

Unlike other members of the federal judiciary, Supreme Court justices have no binding ethics code. Disclosure laws require them to report outside income and certain gifts, though food and other "personal hospitality" such as lodging at an individual's residence are generally exempted.

The court in November adopted its first code of conduct after revelations about Justice Clarence Thomas accepting undisclosed travel from a wealthy benefactor. Justice Samuel Alito also has faced criticism from Democrats after reports that flags associated with Trump's bid to undo his 2020 loss flew outside his homes in Virginia and New Jersey. Alito has said his wife flew the flags.

Critics have called the new code of conduct insufficient because it lets justices decide for themselves whether to recuse from cases and provides no enforcement mechanism.

Legislation would be required to impose term limits and an ethics code, and it is unlikely to pass Congress, with Democrats controlling the Senate and Republicans the House.

The constitutional amendment proposed by Biden to make clear that having served as president does not guarantee a person immunity from federal criminal indictment, trial, conviction or sentencing would be even more difficult to enact.

It would require two-thirds support in the House and Senate or a convention called by two-thirds of the states, and then ratification by 38 of the 50 state legislatures.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Doina Chiacu; editing by Noeleen Walder, Will Dunham and Rosalba O'Brien)

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