Biden seeks term limits for Supreme Court justices, other changes

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday called for a trio of major legislative initiatives, including a constitutional amendment that would expose presidents to criminal prosecution for their actions while in office. The White House also proposed a rule imposing an enforceable code of conduct upon the court’s justices, requiring them to refrain from political speech and recuse themselves from cases wherein they or their spouses have conflicts of interest. Finally, Biden demanded Congress establish term limits upon Supreme Court justices.

What have Republicans had to say about this? House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Monday criticized the proposed changes to the Supreme Court. Democrats wanted to change a government structure that had performed well for more than two centuries just because they disagreed with several of its recent decisions, he said. He promised the proposals would die upon arrival at the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Why is Biden doing this? He said the Supreme Court’s justices had deprived women of what he characterized as fundamental rights and accused them of gutting civil rights protections in recent years. Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson ruling allowed states to protect unborn babies from abortion. Earlier this month, the Court also ruled in Trump v. United States that prosecutors could not pursue criminal charges against former presidents for their official actions they took while in office. The Supreme Court last year adopted a code of conduct amid concerns about justices’ impropriety. But critics argued that it was up to the justices themselves to decide whether they violated that code of ethics.