President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday endorsed a bill that limits Supreme Court justices to 18-year terms and allows presidents to add a new justice every two years—effectively allowing the Biden administration to push out the Court’s conservative majority.
"I support a system in which the president would appoint a justice every two years to spend 18 years in active service on the Supreme Court," Biden wrote in a Washington Post op-ed, endorsing the Supreme Court Biennial Appointments and Term Limits Act. Harris, the new presumptive Democratic nominee, also supported the legislation in a Monday statement.
The bill would effectively enable the executive branch to shift the Court from its 6-3 conservative majority to a 5-4 progressive majority by replacing Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Clarence Thomas with new appointees, the Dispatch's John McCormack reported. Thomas has served for 32 years, while Roberts hit the 18-year mark last September.
The bill, introduced by Senate Democrats in October, states that a replaced justice would take "senior status" and sit out of appellate jurisdiction cases but "retain the authority to hear original jurisdiction cases and to exercise all other powers of the office." If passed, the legislation would, according to Biden, "reduce the chance that any single presidency radically alters the makeup of the Court for generations to come" and help "restore the public’s faith in the Supreme Court."
Biden's support for the bill comes in response to what he calls the Court's "dangerous and extreme decisions"—citing the Supreme Court's 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade and its recent ruling granting former president Donald Trump certain immunities from prosecution for his official acts. Biden is expected to formally endorse the bill and propose a constitutional amendment to eliminate presidential immunity Monday afternoon during a speech in Austin, Texas.
Biden's endorsement is his latest leap towards the progressive wing of his party, as he has recently befriended "Squad" members, many of whom came to his defense when he faced mounting pressure to withdraw his reelection bid. Harris, meanwhile, has been vocal about her desire to pack the Court since her last campaign for president, saying during the 2020 Democratic primaries that she was "open to this conversation about extending the number of people on the U.S. Supreme Court."
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