Joe Biden has an op-ed in the Washington Post this morning, saying “no one” including “a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States” is above the law. He called for term limits and an enforceable ethics code for Supreme Court justices in what would be sweeping changes to the high court. Notably missing from his plan? Court expansion. Via NPR:
“I have great respect for our institutions and separation of powers,” Biden wrote in the op-ed. “What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms. We now stand in a breach.”
Biden is expected to call for the changes to the court during remarks later in the day at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. He is expected to offer his support to a system in which the president would appoint a justice every two years to spend 18 years in active service of the Supreme Court.
Additionally, he is expected to call on Congress to pass binding, enforceable conduct and ethics rules that require justices on the high court to disclose gifts, refrain from public political activity, and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have financial or other conflicts of interest.
Biden is also expected to call for a constitutional amendment that would limit the broad immunity presidents now enjoy following a recent Supreme Court decision.
