President Biden on Monday will propose term limits for Supreme Court justices and a constitutional amendment to counteract their recent presidential immunity decision, according to a White House official.
Biden will endorse the proposals during an afternoon speech at the LBJ Presidential Library, where he will also voice support for a binding code of conduct for the justices.
“This nation was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law. Not the president of the United States. Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. No one,” Biden wrote in an op-ed published Monday morning in The Washington Post.
The announcement marks a major shift for the president, who has long resisted progressives’ calls for Supreme Court reforms over fears it would politicize the court. Conservatives have portrayed the effort as an attack to tear down the court’s 6-3 conservative majority.
Biden has increasingly taken on the court, particularly after it overturned constitutional abortion protections and carved out criminal immunity for former presidents. Biden signaled the forthcoming announcement in his recent Oval Office speech addressing his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
“I have great respect for our institutions and separation of powers. What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms. We now stand in a breach,” Biden wrote in Monday’s op-ed.
One part of Biden’s three-fold proposal directly responds to the immunity decision, which handed a major win to former President Trump by dooming some elements of his criminal prosecutions.
Biden on Monday will call for a constitutional amendment that would partially overturn the landmark decision by making clear former presidents do not enjoy criminal immunity from federal criminal indictments. The “No One Is Above the Law Amendment” would not apply to state indictments, however.
“It would make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office. I share our Founders’ belief that the president’s power is limited, not absolute. We are a nation of laws — not of kings or dictators,” Biden wrote.
Biden will also demand 18-year term limits for the nine justices, which would enable the sitting president to appoint a new justice every two years.
“The United States is the only major constitutional democracy that gives lifetime seats to its high court Justices. Term limits would help ensure that the Court’s membership changes with some regularity; make timing for Court nominations more predictable and less arbitrary; and reduce the chance that any single Presidency imposes undue influence for generations to come,” reads a White House fact sheet on the proposal.
Biden will also endorse a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court, which has faced relentless public pressure on its ethics standards following reports of Justice Clarence Thomas and others accepting lavish trips and gifts from billionaires.
“The court’s 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. Every other federal judge is bound by an enforceable code of conduct, and there is no reason for the Supreme Court to be exempt,” Biden wrote.
In November, the court adopted an ethics code after months of closed-door discussions, but its lack of enforcement mechanism has drawn criticism from Democrats and some watchdog groups.
Justice Elena Kagan endorsed an enforcement mechanism while speaking at a judicial conference last week, becoming the first current justice to publicly support it.
Biden will discuss his reform proposals during an address at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. The trip was originally slated to take place earlier this month, but Biden rescheduled it in the wake of Trump’s assassination attempt.