Biden criticises ‘extreme’ Supreme Court in push for reform

Joe Biden has proposed sweeping reforms, including ending lifetime appointments to justices, and criticized the Supreme Court’s “extreme views.”

The proposal comes after the current conservative-majority Supreme Court has handed down a series of landmark decisions, including overturning constitutional abortion rights and granting the president broad immunity from prosecution for “official duties.”

Biden has proposed limiting judges to 18 years and establishing enforceable ethics rules “to restore trust and accountability.”

But with Republicans controlling the House of Representatives, the bill faces an uphill battle to gain congressional approval.

Democrats hope pushing for reforms will energize voters ahead of the November election.

At the same time, he has been dogged by allegations of judicial ethics violations, especially since journalists investigated Justice Clarence Thomas for failing to report gifts.

The nine justices on the Supreme Court currently serve life terms, with the incumbent president making new appointments when justices retire or die. President Donald Trump has appointed three justices during his four years in office.

Speaking in Austin, Texas, on Monday, Biden said the Supreme Court’s “extreme opinions” have “undermined the law and established civil rights principles and protections.”

The president added that the Supreme Court is “in the midst of an ethical crisis” due to conflicts of interest among its justices.

“I believe these reforms are necessary to restore confidence in the courts and preserve the system of checks and balances that is so important to our democracy,” he said.

The speech was delivered to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.

“What’s happening right now is not normal,” Biden said in an article published in The Washington Post the same day.

“It undermines public confidence in court decisions, including those that affect individual liberties,” he wrote. “We are now in a crisis.”

Biden has proposed appointing new justices to the Supreme Court every two years to 18-year terms, a plan that advocates of reform have previously suggested would help depoliticize the court.

The president also wants Congress to enact new ethics rules that would require judges to disclose gifts and avoid overt political activity.

The court issued an ethics code last year for the first time in its history, but there is no mechanism for enforcing it.

Finally, Biden wants to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would overturn a July 1 Supreme Court ruling that gave President Donald Trump and other former presidents immunity from criminal prosecution.

In a controversial decision, the Supreme Court justices ruled that the president has immunity from liability for “official acts” but not for “unofficial acts.”

Biden said in the article that the amendment, which he called “No one is above the law,” would “make it clear that former presidents have no immunity for crimes they committed while in office.”

“I share our Founding Fathers’ belief that presidential power is limited, not absolute,” he wrote. “We are a nation of laws, not of kings or dictators.”

Republicans have opposed efforts to reform the Supreme Court.

In a statement on Monday, the Trump campaign accused President Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, of working to “undermine the legitimacy” of the Supreme Court.

“This is all part of Kamala’s plan to pack the Supreme Court with far-left extremist justices who will rule based on politics and the law,” Trump’s statement said.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told the BBC’s US partner CBS on Sunday that Democrats had made no effort to do so when a group of more liberal-leaning judges were “putting out opinion after opinion that they preferred”.

Earlier this month, President Trump called efforts to reform the Supreme Court an “illegal” and “unconstitutional” attack on a “sacred” institution.

“Democrats are attempting to interfere in a presidential election and destroy our judicial system by attacking my political opponent, me, and the honorable Supreme Court,” he wrote.

“We must fight for fair and independent courts and protect our country.”

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said the proposal was “dead on arrival” in the House of Representatives, to which Biden responded by saying Johnson’s “idea was dead on arrival.”

Senate Republicans also denounced Biden’s proposal, with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas calling it “an attack on the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.”

Josh Hawley of Missouri said the bills were a “full-scale attack on the courts” that would “eviscerate the institution of the courts.”

Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said the proposal would put the future of the Supreme Court “on the ballot” in November’s presidential election.

Daniel Ehrman, a professor of law and public policy at Northeastern University in Boston, said the proposal is “too little, too late.”

“Lame-duck presidents rarely win major legislative victories, and even when they do, the House of Representatives is controlled by Republicans who are happy with the current Supreme Court,” Prof Ehrman told the BBC.

“What’s interesting is that [Vice President] “How will Harris tackle this issue during the campaign?” he added. “Court reform, and term limits in particular, is very popular.”