President Biden is expected to announce his support for reforming the U.S. Supreme Court, including term limits and mandatory ethics rules.
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President Biden is preparing to call for term limits and enforceable ethics rules for U.S. Supreme Court justices, in what he calls sweeping reforms to the court and how it operates.
The proposal is unlikely to come to fruition because a constitutional amendment or congressional action — two tools that would likely be needed — would be nearly impossible in the current political climate, but the plan itself would represent a major shift for Biden, who has so far resisted any reform of the Supreme Court.
This proposal is The Washington PostTwo sources confirmed the plans, speaking on condition of anonymity because they have not yet been finalized. One of the sources said it could be several weeks before the plan is announced.
The idea was welcomed by ethics watchdog groups. “A majority of the public, regardless of party, believes judges should not serve life, but they should be subject to basic oversight, just like Congress and the executive branch,” said Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Courts, a group that advocates for Supreme Court reform.
Supreme Court justices are appointed for life and can decide for themselves whether to follow the court’s newly adopted ethics rules. The court has come under increased scrutiny following scandals involving Justices Clarence Thomas, who accepted free trips and gifts from conservative megadonors, and Samuel Alito, whose wife flew two flags linked to a far-right movement loyal to former President Donald Trump.
Biden has come under pressure from progressives on the issue.
With four months to go until the presidential election and a statistically tight race with Trump, Biden is trying to appeal to the left wing of his party, which supports Supreme Court reform, though the White House believes the issue also has broad support among independents, Republicans and key demographic groups.
Biden discussed his plan with progressive lawmakers on Saturday, one in a series of calls he has had with Democrats to solidify support after he was left speechless during a debate with Trump last month, raising questions about whether he should continue to run for a second term.
Biden was scheduled to speak at the LBJ Library in Austin on Monday to offer his thoughts on the Supreme Court, but the visit, planned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, was postponed following the assassination attempt on Trump.
He has made the courts a larger part of his campaign messaging.
Biden has increasingly stoked concerns about the impact a Trump reappointment could have on the Supreme Court. In an interview with BET News recorded on Tuesday, Biden warned that two more justices would likely retire over the next four years. “If he appoints two more justices, imagine what that would mean forever,” Biden said in an excerpt published by the network.
The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. President Trump appointed three justices, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, solidifying the conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
Speaking at a star-studded fundraiser in Los Angeles on June 15, Biden addressed recent reports that Justice Alito’s wife had hung an upside-down U.S. flag outside their home after some Trump supporters did so during the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
“The idea that if Trump is re-elected, he can appoint two more justices and fly the flag upside down,” Biden said, adding that it would be “one of the scariest parts” of a second Trump term. He also said at a campaign rally in May that he would nominate a “progressive justice” to fill the vacancy.
Shortly after taking office in 2021, Biden created a presidential commission on the Supreme Court, keeping with a campaign promise he made when repeatedly asked whether he would expand the court with justices more in line with his worldview. Candidate Biden has said he opposes expanding the court but supports a bipartisan commission like the one the White House has set up.
In December of that year, the commission, a group of shadow legal figures, released a report stating that Congress has the power to expand the size of the Supreme Court but has not taken a position on expansion. As for term limits, it suggested a constitutional amendment would likely be necessary, and noted that implementing them would be difficult in practice with the Supreme Court already featuring lifelong justices.
