US President Joe Biden speaks about his economic policies at the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on December 20, 2023.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden is preparing to pass major reform proposals Supreme Court and notified some members of Congress about his intentions last weekend, three sources familiar with the plans said Tuesday.
Proposals under serious consideration include legislation to establish term limits for judges and enact an updated ethics code that would be binding and enforceable, a source said. The policies, which have not been finalized, could be put into place in the coming weeks, which would be a new approach for a president who has long been skeptical of overhauling the Supreme Court.
A White House spokesman declined to comment.
Biden told lawmakers in the Congressional Progressive Caucus during a virtual meeting Saturday that he had been consulting constitutional scholars on the issue for more than a month, according to a person familiar with the discussion.
“I’m going to need your help and your advice on how we’re going to do what I’m going to do there. I want to make sure we have a closer working relationship because we’re in this together,” Biden told lawmakers, though he did not enter on a specific political basis, the source said.
The Washington Post reported for the first time Biden’s plans.
Two other sources told NBC News that Biden told lawmakers he would push for major reforms, without giving specifics, but that members of the call understood he was referring to term limits and ethics rules. The call came Saturday before the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“Look, it’s not, it’s not an exaggeration to suggest that Trump is literally an existential threat, an existential threat to the very constitution of the democracy that we say we care about. And I mean if this guy wins, he’s not, and now , especially with this Supreme Court giving him the latitude — I don’t need to get on the Supreme Court right now — anyway, but I need your help,” Biden said, according to a source who provided that quote.
Changing the structure of the Supreme Court would require Congress to pass a new law. That is highly unlikely while Republicans control the House, as the party is content with the conservative 6-3 majority it has built on the high court.
But the proposals could become a useful messaging tool for Biden on the campaign trail. And if Democrats sweep the polls, they may have a chance of passing. Democrats have rallied voters against the Supreme Court, citing unpopular decisions like the elimination of federal abortion rights and a series of recent reports detailing apparent ethical lapses among some of the justices.
Last month, Senate Democrats tried to pass Supreme Court ethics legislation, but faced Republican opposition. In the House, Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Don Beyer, D-Va., have introduced legislation which would impose 18-year term limits on future judges, eventually creating vacancies to complete every four-year presidential term and prevent retirements for party reasons.
Khanna praised Biden for encouraging the idea, noting that he first introduced term limits legislation in 2020.
“Since then, we’ve been advocating that the president stand up for this reform,” Khanna told NBC News on Tuesday. “It’s a big step for him to now call for common sense term limits for the court and a judicial code of ethics.”
