Former Attorney General Bill Barr on Monday expressed concerns about President Biden’s proposed Supreme Court reforms, arguing they would remove conservative justices from the court and “destroy the independence of the judiciary.”
“The American people need to understand that a movement to fundamentally change the Supreme Court is on the horizon. Current proposals, such as term limits for the longest-serving justices and mandatory ethics rules, threaten the Constitution and the separation of powers, while the far-left is demanding to add liberal justices to the Supreme Court,” said Attorney General Barr and Kelly Shackelford, president and CEO of the First Liberty Institute. Written in an editorial The announcement was made on Fox News on Monday.
Attorney General Barr and Shackelford said these changes would become reality if the Democratic presidential nominee, likely Vice President Harris, wins in November.
“If they win, that is exactly what will happen — and all it will take is a majority vote and the president’s signature,” they wrote, pointing to Harris’ comments. Reportedly She is “open to” discussions about increasing the number of Supreme Court justices.
Biden published his own op-ed in The Washington Post on Monday morning, endorsing broad reforms to the nation’s highest court.
His three proposals include limiting the terms of the nine justices to 18 years, allowing a sitting president to appoint new justices every two years, and a binding code of conduct.
The proposal marks a major about-face for Biden, who has resisted calls from progressives to reform the Supreme Court out of concern about the politicization of the court. Harris said Monday she supports Biden’s plan.
Barr’s Op-Ed Point out the comment In 1983, then-Senator Biden argued that changing the structure of the Supreme Court was a “foolish idea.”
“He was right. What the country needs right now is not a Supreme Court coup that threatens our democratic republic,” the editorial said.
Echoing many Republicans who are staunchly opposed to Supreme Court reform, Attorney General Barr and Shackelford accused the left of trying to “take over” the court out of anger over recent decisions.
Biden has increasingly criticized the Supreme Court after the court overturned constitutional abortion protections and granted the president some criminal immunity.
“The left is outraged by a few cases with which they disagree, and they are trying to destroy the Supreme Court and the rule of law to get their way,” Barr and Shackelford wrote in the op-ed. “The Supreme Court is the only branch of government that stands in the way of one-party rule.”
The op-ed painted a bleak picture of what “court expansion” would look like in reality, suggesting that civil and religious liberties would be restricted and the First Amendment rights of political opponents on the left “trampled on.”
“In reality, ‘court reform’ is nothing more than a desperate attack to undermine the legitimacy of the Constitution and a Supreme Court dominated by fundamentally committed justices,” Barr and Shackelford wrote. “If successful, this coup would reduce the judiciary to a political tool of those in power and end the rule of law.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
