Democrats may have a real chance to reform the Supreme Court
The summer of reversals for President Joe Biden continued in dramatic form on Monday as he announced that he now supports sweeping Supreme Court reform. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Biden pushed 18-year term limits and a binding ethics code on Supreme Court justices — after a long career spent opposing such measures — as well as a constitutional amendment overturning the court’s recent decision granting presidents immunity from criminal prosecution.
Is it too little too late?
After all, Biden is now a lame-duck president, and he faces a Republican-held House that won’t go anywhere near these proposals. Even when Democrats had full control of Washington in Biden’s first two years as president, the party shied away from Supreme Court reform — thanks in significant part to the ambivalence and intransigence of Biden himself.
In fact, as the Supreme Court was issuing the final opinions of yet another controversial term last month, I began surveying the broad community of Supreme Court reform advocates both in and outside of Congress and found real frustration with the White House’s inaction.
“I’ll just agree with you that this has not been a priority for them,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a leading Democratic proponent of Supreme Court reform, told me.
“I think it would help a whole hell of a lot,” Sarah Turberville, the director of the Constitution Project at the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight, said of further presidential engagement.
And then came the news that Biden would be endorsing proposals to overhaul the court amid his last gasp effort to hold on as the Democratic presidential nominee, followed a few days later by his decision to step aside.
Now, despite outward appearances and a challenging political terrain, the path to Supreme Court reform is beginning to take shape. Based on interviews on and off the Hill, there is a rough consensus and strategy that could actually lead Democrats to embrace Biden’s stance and act on the court — if they can win in November. [Continue reading…]