President Joe Biden has introduced his long-awaited series of proposed reforms for the Supreme Court of the United States, detailed in a column published in Monday's edition of The Washington Post.
Three-Part Plan for Supreme Court Reform
Biden's plan includes three critical elements: no immunity for crimes committed by presidents in office, implementation of term limits for Supreme Court justices and the enforcement of a binding code of conduct for the court.
Biden's column started by acknowledging the “simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law.” The column then argued that the recent Supreme Court ruling, granting presidents “broad immunity from prosecution for crimes they commit in office, means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do. The only limits will be those that are self-imposed by the person occupying the Oval Office.”
“If a future president incites a violent mob to storm the Capitol and stop the peaceful transfer of power – like we saw on Jan. 6, 2021 – there may be no legal consequences,” the article continued. “And that's only the beginning.”
On July 1, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that presidents are entitled to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts conducted while in office. However, it clarified that this immunity does not extend to unofficial acts.
Biden proceeded to lay out his plan.
To begin with, there's the “No One Is Above the Law Amendment”:
First, I am calling for a constitutional amendment called the No One Is Above the Law Amendment. It would make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office. I share our Founders' belief that the president's power is limited, not absolute. We are a nation of laws — not of kings or dictators.
Then came his proposal for term limits for Supreme Court justices:
Second, we have had term limits for presidents for nearly 75 years. We should have the same for Supreme Court justices. The United States is the only major constitutional democracy that gives lifetime seats to its high court. Term limits would help ensure that the court's membership changes with some regularity. That would make timing for court nominations more predictable and less arbitrary. It would reduce the chance that any single presidency radically alters the makeup of the court for generations to come. I support a system in which the president would appoint a justice every two years to spend 18 years in active service on the Supreme Court.
And his binding code of conduct:
Third, I'm calling for a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court. This is common sense. The court's current voluntary ethics code is weak and self-enforced. Justices should be required 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. Every other federal judge is bound by an enforceable code of conduct, and there is no reason for the Supreme Court to be exempt.
Mediaite's Colby Hall has additional background information:
The code of conduct allegation comes as a number of controversies have sprung up in the past year or two, particularly focused on Justice Samuel Alito's family flag proclivities and Justice Clarence Thomas's cozy relationship with a politically-minded billionaire who bankrolled a number of luxury vacations for the conservative justice.
“We can and must prevent the abuse of presidential power. We can and must restore the public's faith in the Supreme Court. We can and must strengthen the guardrails of democracy,” Biden concludes. “In America, no one is above the law. In America, the people rule.”
Read the entire column here.
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If a proposal, any proposal, comes from the socialists, run. They will f*ck you for sure.
We have generated 2 full generations of brainwashed public school students that lack the critical thinking skills to see that OBiden wants to stack the court with yes men and women. If implemented this action would fill the court with people beholden to rubber stamp the illegal regulatory power that Congressional Omnibus Bills transfer to the unaccountable Regulatory Departments and Agencies of the Deep State Bureaucracy which already exert executive power over the people bypasses the Legislative Branch. Biden wants us to be ruled not represented.
Joe Bid
Joe Biden is the very last person who should be making changes to anything, especially to the Constitution! Everything he has managed to do during his time in the Oval Office has had negative effects on this once great nation, and now because of his LACK of leadership, this country has become the laughingstock of nations. It should be clear to anyone that the 25th amendment should have removed him from office a long time ago! We are in dire need of the great and positive leadership that we had under Trump administration. If the leadership skills we had under Trumps cannot be brought back, the efforts of our Founding Fathers will have been in vain!
I think that given the apparent condition of his cognitive faculties, Biden’s ideas on the reform of the US (like Obama’s) should not be taken very seriously.
Recommendations proposing changes to our country’s Constitution and the terms of Supreme Court Justices clarified and put forth by Joseph Biden(?) whose mental prowess is in an unquestionable state of decline are those of whom we must question? Who actually authored these recommendations and, further, might these not derive from the same source having Biden put in place the unpatriotic and destructive maligning of people’s rights that he acquiesced to these past three and half years including putting patriots such as Peter Navarro in jail for ignoring a subpoena from a bunch of senators assuming power they did not have? Further, it’s easy for Biden put forth these proposals as he’s assuming the America he’s been controlling still respects his right to do as he pleases. He, supposedly, has challenged our Supreme Court and now this liar whose judgment call caused death to 13 American soldiers and 17M undocumented illegals into our country that continues despite ignominious abuse, murder and rape of our young citizens wants to continue his assault on Americans. I suggest shutting the door to the Oval Office and keep him from entering! Or, have him explain his theory to the American people HIMSELF…..
This is laughable coming from Biden who has damaged this country so much in the past 3 1/2 years of his failed, miserable, horrible presidency.
Senile Joe can’t get a budget bill passed NOR enact any legislation dealing with either Illegal immigration nor the homelessness crisis! This Fool will NEVER get ANY constitutional amendment passed!! What a moron!!
Thank our Founding Fathers & the good Lord for our Constitution. It takes a lot more then just one man or political party to change our government>. My opinion Biden proposal basically is dead on arrival!!!
Any proposal like this from the most untruthful (lying). crooked, treasonous president in history deserves to be immediately deposited in the closest garbage can. This biden clown is enough to make a buzzard puke.
Why not start with Term Limits for our Legislature?
If they want to put term limits on Supreme Court justices what about term limits on Congress and the senate
The Biden proposal should apply to the elected officials (senators and representatives) as they seem to come out of DC with untold financial security (e.e. Obama and Clintons). Uncle Joe is being told what to say and do. If he is incompetent to be a candidate, he should be removed from office.
It is interesting that our Constitution has served us for all these years but now Biden & Company says it needs to be changed. Rather than trying to change rules for the Supreme Court maybe we ought to pass rules limiting how long all those swamp rats can stay in Congress. Some of those guys have been feeding from the government trough for far too long. Some of them need to learn to function in the real world.