US President Joe Biden has said that “extremism” on the Supreme Court of the United States is undermining public confidence in this institution, and has called on Congress to set term limits, and enforce a code of ethics for nine the judges of this court.
He also called on legislators to ratify a constitutional amendment limiting presidential immunity.
Biden, who has less than six months left in the White House, made the remarks at a presidential bookstore in Austin, Texas, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act.
His calls for dramatic changes to the court have little chance of being approved by a deeply divided Congress, just 99 days before Election Day.
However, Democrats believe that these requirements will make voters focus on priorities.
US Vice President Kamala Harris, who is likely to be the Democratic nominee for the presidential race, is trying to portray herself in the race against Republican Donald Trump as a “choice between freedom and chaos.”
Harris, 59, is the first black woman to serve as California’s attorney general, the first South Asian-American and the second African-American to be elected to the U.S. Senate, and the first woman, first African-American and Asian- the first American woman vice president of the United States.
She also enjoys the support of Biden in the race for president of the USA.
“Extremism is undermining public trust in court decisions,” Biden said.
“We can, and we must, prevent the abuse of presidential power, and restore confidence in the Supreme Court.
The White House has been embroiled in growing Democratic anger over the Supreme Court, which has a majority of conservatives — six of them — and has issued opinions that have overturned landmark decisions, such as the one on abortion rights.
Harris said in a statement that the proposed reforms are necessary because “there is a clear crisis of confidence related to the Supreme Court.”
The leader of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, has called the proposal “dangerous” and that the document would be dead once it was sent to the institution he leads.
Trump rejected the proposals and considered them “typical Biden scams”.
“They will not go anywhere. Even he himself knows this,” said Trump in an interview with Fox News.
Biden wants no lifetime appointments for Supreme Court justices.
He believes Congress should pass legislation to create a system where the US president would appoint a judge every two years, with the possibility of serving 18 years on the court.
According to him, term mandates would guarantee a change in the composition of the court and would “reduce the possibilities for a president to have an influence on future generations”.
He requested that the Congress also adopt a code of ethics for judges, that they make public their gifts, refrain from public political activity and be excluded from cases in which they or their spouses have conflicts of interest or other conflicts .
Biden has called on Congress to pass constitutional amendments to overturn a Supreme Court ruling that provides that former US presidents have immunity from legal prosecution.
“This nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America,” Biden said.
“All of us are equal before the law. No one is above the law. In practice, the court’s decision almost clearly means that the president can violate the oath and not face consequences.”
A majority of Americans support a way to limit the terms of Supreme Court justices, according to an August 2023 poll by AP-NORC.
Two-thirds of respondents said that Supreme Court judges should be required to retire at a certain age.
Democrats are more likely to call for judicial retirement, 77 percent, compared to Republicans, 61 percent. /REL
