Biden calls for major Supreme Court reforms, including term limits, at Civil Rights Act event Monday
By Aileen Graef, Julia Benbrook, John Fritze and Arlette Saenz, CNN
(CNN) — President Joe Biden called for major Supreme Court reforms Monday, a long-shot move that would make him the first sitting president in generations to back seismic changes to the way the nation’s highest court operates.
“I have great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers laid out in our Constitution,” Biden said Monday in Austin, Texas. “But what’s happening now is not consistent with that doctrine of separation of powers.”
Biden’s proposals — a constitutional amendment stripping the president of immunity for crimes committed while in office, term limits for Supreme Court justices, and a binding code of conduct for the high court — stand little chance of going anywhere with a divided Congress. But they serve as an election-year message designed to excite the Democrats’ progressive base. Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, quickly endorsed the proposed changes, which come at a time of deep unpopularity for the high court.
Biden’s announcement, which he made at an event commemorating the Civil Rights Act, follows this month’s monumental decision by the Supreme Court granting presidents full immunity for some actions taken while in office and after a tide of revelations about justices accepting vacations and gifts from wealthy conservative donors.
Democrats have frequently pointed to the Supreme Court’s conservative majority – solidified by former President Donald Trump – to underscore what they see as the high stakes of the 2024 election. Biden continued that argument on Monday, also praising his vice president and her ability to carry on the fight.
“In recent years, extreme opinions that the Supreme Court has handed down have undermined long-established civil rights principles and protections,” Biden said, listing a litany of recent cases, including the 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade and this month’s immunity decision.
“No one is above the law,” Biden said, adding that for “all practical purposes” the recent ruling would allow a president to “flout” the law and “face no consequences.”
Biden is calling for an amendment dubbed the “No One Is Above the Law Amendment,” which will state the Constitution “does not confer any immunity from federal criminal indictment, trial, conviction, or sentencing by virtue of previously serving as President.”
“I share our Founders’ belief that the president must answer to the law,” Biden said.
Trump criticized Biden’s call for reforms, saying on Fox News on Monday, “He desperately wants immunity. There’s no way he would write off immunity for a president.”
In what would be another major change, Biden also called for term limits for Supreme Court justices, who serve lifetime appointments. That move, Biden said, would make the timing for the nomination process “more predictable and less arbitrary.”
The reforms Biden is proposing would require congressional approval, which would be difficult to achieve before his term ends, as Republicans control the House and Democrats have a slim majority in the Senate. The constitutional amendment, meanwhile, would require a more complicated process involving the states that seems nearly impossible to succeed.
Ahead of Biden’s announcement, White House officials acknowledged the reform package faces an uphill battle, declining in a gaggle with reporters Monday to say whether Biden believes the proposal is “realistic.”
Steve Benjamin, the White House director of public engagement, said the proposed reforms “will require some type of legislative action,” but he struck a hopeful tone that voters will be able to sway their representatives in Congress.
CNN reported this month that Biden was seriously considering endorsing major Supreme Court reforms, actions that liberal lawmakers and groups have been pushing in recent years.
Biden’s proposals drew sharp and swift pushback from Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson. Johnson said the proposal would go nowhere in the House, assuming Republicans retain control of the chamber next year.
“It is telling that Democrats want to change the system that has guided our nation since its founding simply because they disagree with some of the court’s recent decisions,” Johnson said. “This dangerous gambit of the Biden-Harris administration is dead on arrival in the House.”
Biden responded to Johnson’s assertion during his remarks on Monday, saying he believed the speaker’s “thinking is dead on arrival.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said “the Supreme Court is under attack” in a speech on the Senate floor Monday, calling for Biden and Harris to accept rulings from the court instead of responding “with a full schedule attack on the justices who ruled against them.”
Leonard Leo, a conservative legal advocate whom Democrats accuse of playing a central role in some of the ethics controversies swirling around the court, also criticized the Biden administration proposals in a rare statement.
“No conservative justice has made any decision in any big case that surprised anyone, so let’s stop pretending this is about undue influence,” Leo said. “It’s about Democrats destroying a court they don’t agree with.”
Leo, board co-chairman of the influential Federalist Society, was subpoenaed by Senate Democrats in April. The Senate Judiciary Committee is seeking to better understand whether specific individuals and groups have used undisclosed gifts to gain access to the justices. Leo called the subpoena “unlawful” and “politically motivated” and told CNN at the time that he was “not capitulating” to that request.
Others praised the administration’s ideas.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat and member of the Judiciary Committee who has proposed legislation to tighten ethics rules at the court, described the Biden announcement as a “strong” proposal.
“This court has proven time after time that it cannot police itself,” he said.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin acknowledged that there is only a “remote possibility” that the chamber could pass court ethics legislation, but noted that they are “urging” Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to bring up Whitehouse’s bill before the end of the year.
The Monday announcement comes more than three years after Biden created a commission to study structural changes at the Supreme Court, including term limits and proposals to increase the number of justices. The group submitted its report to the White House in late 2021, but the administration did not pursue any of the ideas discussed in the document.
The debate over proposed structural changes at the Supreme Court has become deeply partisan, with Republicans widely opposed. But the issue has drawn renewed attention after it was reported in May that controversial flags were previously hoisted on properties owned by conservative Justice Samuel Alito. Both of the flags were flown by rioters during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, though Alito has denied any connection to that incident and has said his wife hoisted them for different reasons – including a spat with neighbors.
Meanwhile, the court handed down several controversial decisions this summer that drew sharp criticism on the left, including the stunning 6-3 ruling that granted Trump broad immunity from criminal prosecution over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Last year, the high court adopted its own code of conduct. But the measure was heavily criticized by ethics experts because it included no way to enforce its requirements. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan defended the code of conduct in remarks last week but also conceded it would be more effective if it included an enforcement mechanism.
Biden’s proposal comes as polling indicates support for the court is hovering near historic lows. A Marquette Law School poll in May found that 61% of Americans disapprove of the job the court is doing. Just four years ago, the same poll found the court had a 66% approval rating.
Democrats have sought to use public disapproval of the court – particularly its 2022 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade – to drive voters. Biden and Harris have made that decision a central part of their campaign arguments, hoping the issue of abortion rights will galvanize voters heading into November.
Harris endorsed the proposed changes in a statement released by her campaign Monday, saying they would “restore confidence in the Court, strengthen our democracy, and ensure no one is above the law.”
She also said there was a “clear crisis of confidence facing the Supreme Court.”
“In the course of our Nation’s history, trust in the Supreme Court of the United States has been critical to achieving equal justice under law,” Harris wrote. “President Biden and I strongly believe that the American people must have confidence in the Supreme Court. Yet today, there is a clear crisis of confidence facing the Supreme Court as its fairness has been called into question after numerous ethics scandals and decision after decision overturning long-standing precedent.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday that Harris was closely involved in the proposal.
“The president consulted her closely,” Jean-Pierre said. “Let’s not forget that she was a former member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as a former attorney general, so he certainly listened to her expertise in this arena as well.”
Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee who has resisted calls from his party to expand the court, has become increasingly critical of its makeup. He has described the Supreme Court as “out of kilter” and has warned of the impact a second Trump presidency could have on the nation’s highest court.
Biden, who is making his first trip since bowing out of the 2024 race, called for the changes at the presidential library honoring President Lyndon B. Johnson, who ended his own reelection bid in 1968. Biden also used his remarks to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, the landmark legislation that cemented Johnson’s legacy.
This story and headline have been updated with Biden’s remarks.
CNN’s MJ Lee and Devan Cole, Michael Williams and Donald Judd contributed to this report.
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