In his first public engagement since ending his campaign, President Biden will propose overhauling a court that has become increasingly politicized and subject to ethics complaints.
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President Biden is expected to argue that the current system of lifetime appointments for Supreme Court justices gives a president undue influence for decades.
President Biden is expected to deliver remarks on Monday pushing for legislation that would bring major changes to the Supreme Court, including imposing term limits and creating an enforceable code of ethics on the justices.
The president is scheduled to speak at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, Texas, his first public engagement since announcing his decision to end his presidential campaign last week. His speech will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act and propose overhauling the court, an effort that requires congressional approval and has little hope of gaining traction in a Republican-controlled House and a divided Senate.
The White House said in a fact sheet that Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, also supported the changes Mr. Biden would outline in his remarks.
Mr. Biden is expected to argue that the current system of lifetime appointments for Supreme Court justices gives a president undue influence for decades. He will propose a process in which a president would appoint a justice every two years to spend 18 years on the bench.
Mr. Biden supports a code of conduct that would require justices 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, according to the plan the White House laid out.
He will also call for a constitutional amendment that could limit the broad presidential immunity that the court’s 6-to-3 conservative majority backed at the end of its term last month. That amendment would state that the Constitution does not confer any immunity from federal criminal indictment, trial, conviction or sentencing by virtue of previously serving as president, the White House said.
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Source: nytimes.com
