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Joe Biden will call on Congress to impose sweeping reforms on the Supreme Court and approve a constitutional amendment denying US presidents immunity from prosecution for crimes committed while in office, a White House official said on Monday.
The US president’s proposals highlight how the Supreme Court has become a political flashpoint following a series of controversial rulings by its conservative majority in recent years, including a landmark decision in 2022 that struck down nationwide abortion protections.
The standing of America’s highest court has also emerged as a top issue in November’s presidential election, which is set to pit vice-president Kamala Harris against former president Donald Trump.
Biden, 81, said last week that reforms to the court would be “critical to our democracy” during an Oval Office address in which he formally announced his decision to drop out of the presidential campaign and endorsed Harris for the Democratic nomination.
Any plans for judicial reform are unlikely to pass Congress given Republicans control the House of Representatives, but they still represent a big step for a president who has long resisted a shake-up of the Supreme Court.
The proposed reforms will include setting term limits for justices, who currently enjoy lifetime appointments. Biden will instead propose that presidents appoint justices every two years for 18-year terms.
The president will also call for a binding code of conduct to prevent conflicts of interest, including disclosing gifts and refraining from engaging in openly political activities.
Biden will not go as far as some Democrats who have called for an expansion of the Supreme Court with more justices to offset the body’s current 6-3 conservative slant.
But his move comes as a response to ethical questions that have dogged staunchly conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, who have accepted lavish gifts and luxury trips from wealthy friends while on the bench and are closely aligned with Republican political causes.
According to a Gallup poll conducted in September last year, 58 per cent of respondents disapproved of the way the Supreme Court was handling its job, while 41 per cent approved.
The White House said Biden’s plans would force justices to recuse themselves from cases if their spouse had a financial or other related interest.
Biden is expected to make the push for Supreme Court reform as he visits the Lyndon B Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.
As well as Supreme Court reforms, Biden will call for a constitutional amendment to clarify that “no president is above the law or immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office”.
The effort is a direct rebuke to Trump, who has insisted on his immunity for actions taken while in office, and the Supreme Court, which recently ruled that Trump could be afforded some immunity for official acts, a decision that could affect ongoing cases against him on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election and mishandling classified documents.
“This ‘no one is above the law’ amendment will state that the Constitution does not confer any immunity from federal criminal indictment, trial, conviction or sentencing by virtue of previously serving as president,” said a White House official.
But a constitutional amendment would be even harder to pass, as it needs both a two-thirds supermajority in Congress and ratification by three-fourths of states.