President Joe Biden called for term limits for Supreme Court justices on Monday after weeks of attacking previous court decisions on presidential immunity and abortion.
In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Biden revealed three major changes he wants done at the high court as he finishes his presidency. These changes include term limits for justices, a new ethics code for justices, and an amendment cracking down on presidential immunity.
“This nation was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law,” Biden wrote. “Not the president of the United States. Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. No one.”
Biden claimed that the court’s recent 6-3 decision to side with former President Donald Trump’s assertion of broad presidential immunity for exercising core constitutional powers would allow presidents to commit crimes and put “virtually no limits on what a president can do.”
In response to that decision, Biden is calling for an amendment that would “make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office.”
Biden’s campaign recently referred to the court as the “Trump Supreme Court” and said it was “out of touch with what the founders intended” over the court’s immunity decision. He also attacked the court over its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the issue of abortion to the states.
Biden, who has appointed just one Supreme Court justice, also called for term limits for justices.
“That would make timing for court nominations more predictable and less arbitrary,” he wrote. “It would reduce the chance that any single presidency radically alters the makeup of the court for generations to come.”
He said he would want a system where a president would appoint a new justice about every two years for 18 years of service on the court. Trump appointed three justices during his presidency.
Biden also called for a new ethics code on the court amid a barrage of media coverage targeting conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito over financial disclosures. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor has also faced questions after The Daily Wire reported that she declined to recuse herself from multiple copyright infringement cases involving book publisher Penguin Random House despite having been paid millions by the firm for a book deal.
“For example, undisclosed gifts to justices from individuals with interests in cases before the court, as well as conflicts of interest connected with Jan. 6 insurrectionists, raise legitimate questions about the court’s impartiality,” Biden wrote.
Biden’s sweeping proposals will likely face an uphill battle as many Republicans have already come out against them, saying that the president is seeking to further politicize the court.
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