Biden proposes unprecedented reform of US Supreme Court

The American head of state has called for a constitutional amendment that would abolish criminal immunity for presidents

US President Joe Biden has called for major reforms to the Supreme Court and laid out plans to “restore trust” in the American judicial system in an opinion piece published by the Washington Post on Monday.

Arguing for his so-called “No One Is Above the Law Amendment,” Biden stated that he believes that the US president’s power should be “limited, not absolute” and slammed the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in July to grant presidents broad immunity from prosecution for crimes they commit in office.

The ruling was made after Biden’s federal prosecutors attempted to charge former US President Donald Trump with four criminal counts related to the 2020 presidential election, accusing him of conspiring to overturn its results and obstructing its certification. 

The primary changes proposed by Biden include a constitutional amendment that would strip former presidents of immunity for crimes committed while in office, term limits for Supreme Court justices and the establishment of a binding code of conduct for the high court.

“[The July ruling] means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do,” Biden wrote, suggesting that “the only limits will be those that are self-imposed by the person occupying the Oval Office.” 

As for term limits for Supreme Court Justices, Biden said he opposed lifetime seats for the high court and proposed limiting them to 18 years of active service, with the president being able to appoint a new justice only every two years.

He also argued that a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court is “common sense” and suggested that the 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,” Biden wrote.

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Biden reacts to Trump immunity ruling

Biden said that all three of his proposals are already supported by the “majority of Americans - as well as conservative and liberal scholars” and suggested that these changes must be made to prevent the abuse of presidential power and “strengthen the guardrails of democracy.”

While Biden’s proposal has been backed by the Democrats and his Vice President Kamala Harris, Republican lawmakers, who hold a majority in the House of Representatives, have dismissed the plan as “dead on arrival.”

Donald Trump has also shrugged off the US president’s effort as “a typical Biden con,” telling Fox News that the proposal is “going nowhere” and that Biden “knows that too.”