President Biden calls for Supreme Court reform
UPDATE (11:39 AM): President Joe Biden is speaking at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas Monday afternoon.
According to NBC News, this is to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.
NBC News also reports that President Biden will talk about his calls for Supreme Court reform during his speech at the ceremony.
To watch the livestream of the ceremony, see attached video:
UPDATE (11:25 AM): U.S Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) issued a statement regarding President Biden's calls for SCOTUS reforms:
"The reforms President Biden endorsed today would restore and reenforce our commitment that no one — not Members of Congress, not Supreme Court Justices, and not even current or past Presidents of the United States — is above the law in America.
If the Supreme Court continues to undermine this basic tenet of our democracy and abuse the trust of the American people, then Congress must help restore that faith. By implementing my consistent calls for long overdue, commonsense term limits and a strict, enforceable ethics standard, we can help restore fairness to a judicial system that determines the fate of our most fundamental freedoms, from a woman's right to choose to gun safety to civil rights.
Let me be clear: the Supreme Court's refusal to abide by an enforceable ethical code and its repeated decisions that abandon decades of precedent are politicizing the Court in a dangerous way. And because of this Court's recent decision on presidential criminal immunity, we face the prospect of a president who has vowed to be a dictator on day one, free to act with impunity and without fear of consequence. I urge my colleagues in Congress and my partners across the country to adopt these critical reforms as soon as possible. The fate of our democracy as we know it is at stake."
(NBC, KYMA/KECY) - President Biden is calling for bold reforms to restore trust and accountability when it comes to the presidency and the United States Supreme Court.
On Monday afternoon, President Biden will endorse the proposals during a speech at the LBJ Presidential Library.
He is expected to propose term limits for Supreme Court justices and a constitutional amendment to counteract their recent presidential immunity decision.
The amendment would partially overturn the landmark decision by making clear former presidents do not enjoy criminal immunity from federal criminal indictments. However, it would not apply to state indictments.
The president will also voice support for a binding code of conduct for the justices.
Following this, Vice President Kamala Harris issued a statement saying:
"In the course of our Nation's history, trust in the Supreme Court of the United States has been critical to achieving equal justice under law. President Biden and I strongly believe that the American people must have confidence in the Supreme Court. Yet today, there is a clear crisis of confidence facing the Supreme Court as its fairness has been called into question after numerous ethics scandals and decision after decision overturning long-standing precedent.
That is why President Biden and I are calling on Congress to pass important reforms – from imposing term limits for Justices' active service, to requiring Justices to comply with binding ethics rules just like every other federal judge. And finally, in our democracy, no one should be above the law. So we must also ensure that no former President has immunity for crimes committed while in the White House.
These popular reforms will help to restore confidence in the Court, strengthen our democracy, and ensure no one is above the law."
