Some legal experts say President Biden’s recent calls for reform of the Supreme Court, warning that “extremism is eroding public confidence in the Court,” are part of an ongoing criticism of the court.
Biden on Monday called for term limits and ethics rules for judges to “prevent abuse of presidential power and restore confidence in the Supreme Court.”
Over the past few decades, Democrats have pushed for reform of the system, usually after facing political backlash from a decision.
Another example is the calls by Democrats like Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to abolish the Electoral College after the 2016 election.
Biden’s Supreme Court criticism is unprecedented, experts say
The Supreme Court and President Biden (Getty Images)
While campaigning in Jackson, Mississippi in 2019, Warren argued that non-battleground states are often not visited during general elections and their voters are often overlooked.
Meanwhile, other Democrats were incensed by the fact that former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won far more of the popular vote than Donald Trump, yet Trump won by 77 electoral votes.
In 2013, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid, Democrat of Nevada, invoked the “nuclear option” to eliminate the 60-vote threshold for nominees vetted by the Senate.
At the time, Sen. Mitch McConnell warned Reid, “You’re going to regret this, and you might regret it a lot sooner than you think.”
A few years later, McConnell’s premonition came true, as Democrats raged at the Kentucky Republican for using Reid’s precedent to expand “optionality” for Supreme Court nominees and fast-track President Trump’s nominees through the confirmation process.
Democrats have condemned the censorship of journalists on Twitter during Elon Musk’s tenure, but have not taken much issue with Jack Dorsey’s Twitter censoring a shocking New York Post article about Hunter Biden.
Legal experts said the proposed changes were highly unlikely to come to fruition.
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“As for Biden wanting to put term limits on Supreme Court justices, that’s a pipe dream at best,” said Ken Belkin, a criminal and civil rights lawyer in New York.
“United States Supreme Court justices are constitutionally appointed for life as long as they continue to serve good behavior. To impose term limits, as President Biden proposes, would require a constitutional amendment.”
Belkin pointed to the tricky process of passing a constitutional amendment, which must be approved by 38 state legislatures.
But he noted that expanding the courts could be achieved through legislative action.
“Attacks on the Supreme Court are being fueled by some politicians and media outlets who appear to have a fundamental misunderstanding of the Court’s role or are deliberately misleading the public,” Belkin added.
“The Court does not exist to decide whether individuals’ policy choices are liberal or conservative.”
Another legal expert suggested that there is indeed a tendency on the left to reform the system.
“Clearly, if the left doesn’t like something, they assume it’s a problem that needs to be fixed, and of course they’re trying to mess with supposedly independent government agencies that they don’t control,” said John Malcolm, a former deputy assistant attorney general.
Malcolm, now a senior legal fellow at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, said justices serve life terms to ensure they remain independent and that the six conservative justices have “infuriated” the left.
Malcolm noted that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito had come under fire from Democrats for accepting trips from wealthy friends, and noted Democratic silence when the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg did the same thing.
Malcolm said Biden has never voiced such support for court reform during his decades in office, but he did so now with 99 days left in his political career.
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“This is clearly political. [and] It was designed to rally Democrats together,” Malcolm said.
“It’s not about trying to address the so-called problems or seriously addressing reform.”
Regarding the political dimension of this apparent pattern, Mike Davis, executive director of the Article III Project, said Biden is unfairly “selectively trying to disqualify” judges he doesn’t like.
Supreme Court justices sit for a group photo. (Javin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“And now the same president who politicized the Justice Department and weaponized it to destroy his political opponents now wants to destroy the Supreme Court that blocked him,” said Davis, whose organization specializes in interpreting the Constitution and helps vet and confirm judicial nominees like Judge Neil Gorsuch.
“[Biden’s] The vice president aided and abetted him every step of the way,” Davis added.
Davis called the left’s actions “the gravest threat imaginable to our country” and said Biden and Harris are essentially trying to destroy a co-equal branch of government.
“Both are ‘dictators’ and ‘threats to democracy’ projected onto political opponents,” Davis said.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
