Biden calls for Supreme Court reforms, amendment to strip presidents of immunity from prosecution

President Joe Biden on Monday called for reforms to the Supreme Court, including limiting justices’ terms, creating a binding code of conduct and ethics rules, and proposing a constitutional amendment to strip presidents of their immunity from prosecution.

Presidential immunity

In an op-ed to be published Monday, according to a White House official, Biden plans to write: “This nation was founded on a simple but profound principle: No one is above the law. Not the president of the United States, not a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. No one.”

“President Biden shares the Founders’ belief that the power of the president is limited, not absolute, and must ultimately belong to the people,” the official said. “He calls for a constitutional amendment that makes clear that no president is above the law or immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.”

Biden will champion these reforms during his speech at the LBJ Library in Austin, where he will mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.

A constitutional amendment is not an easy thing to implement. It must be proposed by a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate or be requested by a constitutional convention of 34 states. Then, 38 state legislatures must approve it. The last time an amendment was added to the Constitution was the 27th Amendment in 1992, which dealt with changes in congressional pay.

Biden’s op-ed comes after the Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that former President Donald Trump is entitled to some immunity and that former presidents enjoy absolute immunity for “essential” official acts.

Supreme Court Term Limits

Biden is also pushing Congress to limit Supreme Court justices’ terms to 18 years, with presidents appointing a justice every two years, according to the White House official. Currently, justices are appointed for life.

“I served as a United States senator for 36 years, including as chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee,” Biden is also expected to write in his op-ed, according to the official. “I have overseen more Supreme Court nominations as senator, vice president, and president than anyone alive today. I have great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers. What is happening now is not right and undermines public confidence in the Court’s decisions, including those that impact individual liberties. We now find ourselves in a breach.”

The official said Biden wants to limit the number of terms on the court, just as he wants to limit the presidency.

“The United States is the only major constitutional democracy that provides life terms to Supreme Court justices,” the official added. “Term limits would help ensure that the composition of the court changes with some regularity, make the timing of appointments to the court more predictable and less arbitrary, and reduce the risk that a single presidency would exert undue influence on future generations.”

Supreme Court Code of Conduct

Additionally, Biden is pushing for a binding and enforceable code of conduct and ethics rules for the Supreme Court that would require justices 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,” the White House official said.

“Supreme Court justices should not be exempt from the code of conduct that applies to all other federal judges,” the official argued.

The official said the President’s Commission on the U.S. Supreme Court provided Biden with an analysis of his reform proposals, for which he is grateful.

In November, the court’s nine justices signed a new official code of conduct, but critics said it was not binding and was merely a “friendly suggestion.”

Biden’s call for Supreme Court reform comes more than a year after ProPublica first reported that Justice Clarence Thomas received luxury travel and hospitality perks from a billionaire Republican donor, and that Justice Samuel Alito failed to report a luxury vacation he took with a wealthy hedge fund manager who later had cases before the Supreme Court.

Alito refuted the allegations, arguing that the justices “generally interpret” the rules on hospitality “to mean that lodging and transportation to social events are not reportable gifts.” He also said he was unaware of the director’s connection to the cases before the court and that his conversations with the man were limited and did not involve his or the court’s business. Thomas said in a statement at the time: “This type of personal hospitality from close friends, who had no business before the court, was not reportable.”

Last month, the Supreme Court released a new set of financial disclosures that shed light on some of the justices’ income and outside affiliations, though some key information that critics said would give a more complete picture was not included. At the time, Alito’s and Thomas’ disclosures were not released.

Later in the day, Thomas made his first official announcement about his July 2019 trips to Bali, Indonesia, and the Bohemian Grove Club in California, both funded by billionaire Harlan Crow. The trips, which included a one-night stay at a Bali hotel or a three-night stay at a private club, had not been previously reported by Thomas.

In May, The New York Times published a photo of an upside-down American flag flying outside the Alitos’ Virginia home in the weeks following the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots. Rioters and affiliated groups have been known to fly the American flag upside down as a protest against Biden’s 2020 election victory.

At the time, in a statement to The New York Times, Alito said it was his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, who displayed the flag in that manner after being offended by a neighbor’s “objectionable” yard signs.

The flag news came as a case related to January 6 was before the Supreme Court.

On Sunday, before Biden’s announcement, CBS asked Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina if he would work with the president on judicial reform. Graham rejected the idea, saying Democrats were trying to “undermine the conservative court.”

Asked directly whether he supported term limits, Graham said: “No, no, no, no, no.”