Biden Proposes Major SCOTUS Reforms, Including Ending Lifetime Appointments & Enforcing Ethics Code

Just a month after the Supreme Court granted former President Donald Trump broad immunity from prosecution for crimes committed in office, President Joe Biden has laid out a plan to reform the court. On Monday, Biden called for 18-year term limits, an enforceable code of ethics and an end to presidential immunity, though he stopped short of supporting court expansion. “This is a pretty big deal,” says Jennifer Ahearn, senior counsel in the Brennan Center’s Judiciary Program, though she notes that “politically, we have a ways to go before the views of the people … can actually make their way through the Washington process.” Ahearn explains the potential effects of judicial term limits, which could bring the court closer in line with “the issues of the day,” better reflecting the results of recent presidential elections than the current system of lifetime appointments does. Biden’s proposal was buoyed by Justice Elena Kagan’s public comments last week endorsing an enforceable code of ethics. This shows just “how much the conversation around Supreme Court reform has changed” as a result of the court’s current ethics scandal, adds ProPublica reporter Andy Kroll, who was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team that exposed how Justice Thomas accepted unreported gifts from conservative megadonors who had business before the court.