President Joe Biden is expected to propose major changes to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks in hopes of animating Democratic voters, according to The Washington Post.
Sources involved in ongoing discussions told the Post that Biden previewed his plans during a Saturday Zoom meeting with the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
“I’m going to need your help on the Supreme Court, because I’m about to come out — I don’t want to prematurely announce it — but I’m about to come out with a major initiative on limiting the court. … I’ve been working with constitutional scholars for the last three months, and I need some help,” Biden said, according to a transcript of Saturday’s discussion provided to The Washington Post.
The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and other outlets broadly confirmed the Post’s reporting soon after its article went up Tuesday afternoon.
Former President Donald Trump responded to The Washington Post’s report on Truth Social soon after the news broke.
“The Democrats are attempting to interfere in the Presidential Election, and destroy our Justice System, by attacking their Political Opponent, ME, and our Honorable Supreme Court,” Trump said. “We have to fight for our Fair and Independent Courts, and protect our Country.”
Potential changes to Supreme Court
The Washington Post and other outlets are reporting that Biden is eyeing a few key proposals:
- A new law that would establish term limits for Supreme Court justices.
- A new law that would establish external enforcement of the Supreme Court ethics code.
- A constitutional amendment that would limit the scope of presidential immunity.
The first two proposals would need to pass the House and Senate to become law, while the third would need to be formally proposed by Congress or at a Constitutional Convention and ratified by three-fourths of the 50 states, according to the National Archives.
Biden’s stance on Supreme Court reform
If Biden announces his support for one or more of these proposals in the coming weeks, it would mark a change from his past approach to Supreme Court politics.
Although he did form a commission to study the future of the court soon after he took office in January 2021, Biden has not previously advocated for the proposed changes put forward by other Democrats, such as expanding the size of the Supreme Court.
Biden “has long resisted calls to reform the high court, though since taking office he has been increasingly vocal about his belief that the court is abandoning mainstream constitutional interpretation,” The Associated Press reported.
He might be open to adjusting his stance on the court now because of its recent rulings on a variety of contentious issues, like presidential immunity — the court said in June that a president’s official acts are immune from prosecution, as the Deseret News previously reported — and rising public dissatisfaction with the justices.
A June survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that “7 in 10 Americans think the high court’s justices are more influenced by ideology, while only about 3 in 10 U.S. adults think the justices are more likely to provide an independent check on other branches of government by being fair and impartial,” according to The Associated Press.