CNN
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President Joe Biden on Monday called for major reform of the Supreme Court, which, while unlikely to come to fruition, would make him the first sitting president in generations to back dramatic changes to how the nation’s highest court operates.
Biden’s proposals — a constitutional amendment to strip presidents of immunity for crimes committed while in office, term limits for Supreme Court justices and a binding code of conduct for the court — have little chance of passing in a divided Congress. But they serve as election-year messaging to galvanize the party’s progressive base. Vice President Kamala Harris, now the leading Democratic presidential candidate, quickly endorsed the amendments, which come at a time when the Supreme Court is deeply unpopular.
Biden made the announcement at an event in Austin, Texas, marking the passing of civil rights legislation, following the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling this month granting full immunity to presidents for some actions while in office and a series of revelations that justices have accepted vacations and gifts from wealthy conservative donors.Democrats on the campaign trail frequently point to the court’s conservative majority, solidified by former President Donald Trump, to underscore how important the 2024 election is.
“In recent years, the Supreme Court’s extreme decisions have undermined long-established civil rights principles and protections,” Biden said Monday, citing a number of recent cases, including the 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade and this month’s immunity decision.
Biden has also sought to introduce an amendment called the “No Person is Above the Law” that would add to the Constitution that “no person shall be immune from Federal criminal prosecution, trial, conviction, or sentence by reason of having served as President.”
“I share our Founding Fathers’ belief that a president must obey the law,” Biden said.
In another major reform, Biden called for term limits on Supreme Court justices who are appointed for life, a measure he said would make the timing of the nomination process “more predictable and less arbitrary.”
Biden’s proposed reforms would require congressional approval, a feat that would be difficult to get before the end of his term with Republicans controlling the House and Democrats holding a slim majority in the Senate, while a constitutional amendment would require a more complicated process involving states that would make it nearly impossible to succeed.
White House officials said the reforms, which will face stiff resistance, are aimed at “restoring trust and accountability to the president and the United States Supreme Court.”
Ahead of Biden’s announcement, White House officials acknowledged that the reform plan would face an uphill battle and, in a briefing with reporters on Monday, declined to say whether Biden considered the proposal “realistic.”
White House communications director Steve Benjamin said the proposed reforms “would require some kind of legislative action” but expressed hope that voters would be able to sway their congressional representatives.
CNN reported this month that Biden is seriously considering supporting major Supreme Court reforms that have been pushed for in recent years by liberal lawmakers and groups.
Biden’s proposal drew sharp and swift backlash from Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said the proposal would not see any progress in the House, assuming Republicans retain control of the chamber next year.
“It’s indicative that Democrats want to change the system that has guided our country since its founding simply because they disagree with some of the Supreme Court’s most recent decisions,” Johnson said. “This dangerous gambit by the Biden-Harris Administration failed the moment it passed the House of Representatives.”
Asked about Johnson’s claim that the proposal would be dead when it got to the House of Representatives, Biden replied after arriving in Texas, “I think that’s exactly right. It’s dead when it gets there.”
When asked how he would get the bill through Congress, Biden responded, “We’ll figure out a way.”
“The Supreme Court is under attack,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor on Monday, and urged Biden and Harris to accept the court’s decisions instead of “launching a full-scale attack on the justices who ruled against them.”
Leonard Leo, a conservative lawyer who Democrats have accused of playing a central role in some of the ethics debates surrounding the Supreme Court, also criticized the Biden administration’s proposal in an unusual statement.
“Conservative justices have never ruled in a major case that would surprise anyone, so let’s stop pretending this is an issue of undue influence,” Leo said. “This is an issue of Democrats destroying a court they don’t agree with.”
Leo, who is co-chair of the influential Federalist Society’s board of directors, received a subpoena from Senate Democrats in April as the Senate Judiciary Committee seeks to better understand whether certain individuals or groups have contacted judges with undisclosed gifts. Leo called the subpoena “illegal” and “politically motivated” and told CNN at the time that he would “not succumb” to the demands.
Some people praised the government’s idea.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat and member of the Judiciary Committee who has proposed legislation to tighten ethics rules at the Supreme Court, called Biden’s announcement a “powerful” proposal.
“This court has proven time and time again that it cannot regulate itself,” he said.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin acknowledged there was a “slight” chance the Senate could pass a court ethics bill but said he was “urging” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to bring the White House’s bill forward by the end of the year.
Monday’s announcement came more than three years after Biden created a commission to look at structural reforms to the Supreme Court, including term limits and proposals to increase the number of justices. The commission submitted a report to the White House in late 2021, but the administration did not pursue any of the ideas discussed in the document.
The debate over the Supreme Court’s structural reform bill has become deeply partisan, with Republicans widely opposed to it. However, the issue has drawn renewed attention since reports in May revealed that a controversial flag had previously been flown on property owned by conservative Justice Samuel Alito. The two flags were raised by rioters during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, but Justice Alito has denied any connection to that incident, saying his wife had raised them for other reasons, including an argument with a neighbor.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has issued several controversial decisions this summer that drew sharp criticism from the left, including a shocking 6-3 decision granting Trump broad immunity from criminal prosecution for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Last year, the Supreme Court adopted its own code of conduct, but the measure was roundly criticized by ethics experts because it lacked any means to enforce its requirements. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan defended the code in remarks last week, but acknowledged that it would be more effective if it included enforcement measures.
Biden’s proposal comes as polls show support for the Supreme Court near its lowest level ever. A Marquette Law School poll in May found that 61% of Americans disapproved of the court’s job. Just four years ago, the same poll had the court’s approval rating at 66%.
Democrats have sought to capitalize on public discontent with the Supreme Court, particularly its 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, to sway voters. Biden and Harris have made the ruling a central argument in their campaign, hoping the abortion rights issue will energize voters ahead of November.
In a statement released by her campaign on Monday, Harris said she supported the proposed amendments, saying they would “restore confidence in the Supreme Court, strengthen our democracy, and ensure that no one is above the law.”
She also said the “Supreme Court is clearly facing a crisis of credibility.”
“Throughout our nation’s history, confidence in the United States Supreme Court has been essential to ensuring equal justice under the law,” Harris wrote. “President Biden and I believe strongly that the American people must have confidence in the Supreme Court. Yet today, with numerous ethics scandals and a series of decisions overturning long-standing precedents calling into question the Court’s impartiality, the Court is clearly facing a crisis of confidence.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday that Harris had been closely involved in the proposal.
“The president consulted her extensively,” Jean-Pierre said, “and let’s not forget that she is a former member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a former attorney general, so the president certainly listened to her expertise in this area as well.”
Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee who has resisted his party’s calls to expand the Supreme Court, has become increasingly critical of the court’s makeup, describing it as “out of balance” and warning about the impact a reelection of President Donald Trump could have on the nation’s highest court.
Biden, making his first visit since dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, called for changes at the presidential library honoring President Lyndon B. Johnson, who ended his own reelection bid in 1968. Biden also delivered a speech marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, the landmark law that cemented Johnson’s legacy.
This story and headline have been updated to reflect Biden’s remarks.
CNN’s MJ Lee, Devan Cole, Michael Williams and Donald Judd contributed to this report.
