President Joe Biden revealed his plan to radically change the U.S. Supreme Court in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post.
Biden argued that there should be term limits for justices and a “binding code of conduct.”
The opinion piece centers around the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on Donald Trump’s presidential immunity appeal.
“This nation was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law,” Biden’s piece reads. “Not the president of the United States. Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. No one.”
“But the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision on July 1 to grant presidents broad immunity from prosecution for crimes they commit in office means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do,” Biden wrote. “The only limits will be those that are self-imposed by the person occupying the Oval Office.”
Biden went on to describe the Court being involved in a “crisis of ethics” due to its decision on Roe v. Wade and “scandals” surrounding the justices, such as receiving “undisclosed gifts” from “individuals with interests in cases before the court.”
He described a forthcoming constitutional amendment called the “No One Is Above the Law Amendment.” According to Biden, this amendment would “make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office.”
Biden then called for term Supreme Court justice limits and a “binding” code of conduct.
At the end of the piece, Biden reiterated that his intention behind the reforms is to “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,” he wrote. “In America, no one is above the law. In America, the people rule.”
The White House released a fact sheet elaborating on Biden’s plan. Biden’s proposed constitutional amendment will “state that the Constitution does not confer any immunity from federal criminal indictment, trial, conviction, or sentencing by virtue of previously serving as President,” the fact sheet explains.
It also expounds upon Supreme Court justice term limits, explaining that Biden “supports a system in which the President would appoint a Justice every two years to spend eighteen years in active service on the Supreme Court.”
“President Biden and Vice President Harris look forward to working with Congress and empowering the American people to prevent the abuse of Presidential power, restore faith in the Supreme Court, and strengthen the guardrails of democracy,” the fact sheet says.
