Biden to push for Supreme Court ethics reform, term limits and amendment to overturn immunity ruling, sources say
By HatetheSwamp July 17, 2024 1:47 pm Category: Government (0.0 from 0 votes)
Rules of the Post
Now, gang, I need some help from our resident former Supreme Court clerk and current Ivy League law school professor.
po,
Wouldn't term limits for judges require a constitutional amendment?
Chief among the changes Biden is planning to publicly back are term limits for the nine justices, who currently serve lifetime appointments. The president is also said to be preparing to throw his support behind an ethics code for the court that would contain an enforcement mechanism, which was notably absent from the code the court adopted last year.
Additionally, Biden is considering whether he should push for a constitutional amendment that would effectively reverse the historic ruling from the court earlier this month that gave presidents immunity for some actions they take while in office.
If adopted by Congress, the changes would represent some of the biggest to hit the court in decades. Progressives have in recent years been pushing for such dramatic reforms at the court, but Biden has not fully embraced their proposed reforms, instead taking a much more cautious approach to the court that has included him forming a commission to look at potential reforms during the early days of his presidency.
The reforms backed by Biden would need congressional approval and the constitutional amendment would require ratification by 38 states in a process that seems nearly impossible to succeed.
News of Biden’s forthcoming announcement was met with immediate praise from some progressive court reform groups.
“Reforming this broken court is imperative – not just for protecting the hard-won rights of the last century, but for making any progress as a nation in the future,” said Sarah Lipton-Lubet, president of the group Take Back the Court. “While ethics rules and term limits alone cannot fully restore balance and independence, today’s announcement is a watershed moment in the fight to take back the court.”
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