AUGUST 4, 2024
Chief US Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch poses for the official photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on October 7, 2022. Gorsuch issued a two-word warning on Sunday about President Joe Biden’s plan to reform the Supreme Court in his final months in office. – OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP/Getty Images
United States Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch issued a warning on Sunday about President Joe Biden’s plan to reform the Court in his final months in office, saying “be careful.”
Biden stepped down from the 2024 presidential race on July 21 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as she is expected to face former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, in November’s general election.
Late last month, Biden released a new three-part plan to reform the nation’s Highest Court, calling for there to be term limits on justices, a constitutional amendment to block the Court’s presidential immunity ruling and an enforceable ethics code imposed on the bench. Like all federal judges, Supreme Court justices serve lifetime appointments on the court.
“The United States is the only major constitutional democracy that gives lifetime seats to its high court Justices,” a fact sheet from the White House reads. “Term limits would help ensure that the Court’s membership changes with some regularity; make timing for Court nominations more predictable and less arbitrary; and reduce the chance that any single Presidency imposes undue influence for generations to come.”
The White House said Biden would support reform in which presidents appoint justices every two years and justices spend only 18 years of active service on the Court—a timeline that aligns with what many critics of the Supreme Court have called for.
During an interview appearance on Fox News Sunday, anchor Shannon Bream spoke about Biden’s reform and asked Gorsuch, a conservative justice, “How does the Court feel about potential changes to term limits?”
In response, Gorsuch said he would not “get into what is now a political issue during a presidential election year.”
Gorsuch continued: “I have one thought to add. The independent judiciary…what does it mean to you as an American? It means when you are unpopular, you can get a fair hearing under the law and under the constitution. If you’re in the majority, you don’t need judges and juries to hear you and protect your rights, you’re popular. It’s there for the moments when the spotlight’s on you. When the government’s coming after you. And don’t you want a ferociously independent judge and a jury of your peers to make those decisions? Isn’t that your right as an American? And so I just say be careful.”
Newsweek has reached out to the White House via email and the Supreme Court via online form for comment.
Biden’s effort to reform the Highest Court comes after conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, the longest-serving member of the Court, faced criticism for accepting undisclosed gifts and holding perceived biases in cases involving Trump and Thomas’ wealthy benefactors. In addition, Samuel Alito faced recent criticism over a photograph of an upside-down American flag being flown outside his home just days before Biden’s inauguration and days after the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
Thomas has defended the relationship between the donor of the undisclosed gifts as he previously said in a statement, in reference to a 2019 trip, which involved flying to Indonesia on the donor’s private jet that he was “advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable.”
In a statement previously emailed to The New York Times, Alito placed all the responsibility of flying the inverted American flag, a symbol often referred to as “Stop the Steal” that has been used by supporters of Trump, on his wife, Martha-Ann Alito. The justice wrote he “had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag” and that it was “briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”
Both justices have declined to recuse themselves from Trump-related cases, prompting Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, to file articles of impeachment against them last month. However, the impeachment attempt is unlikely to succeed in the Republican-controlled House.
In addition, the conservative majority, which has three justices who were appointed by Trump, has also faced backlash after a series of controversial rulings issued just before the end of its term in July.
“These scandals involving the justices have caused public opinion to question the court’s fairness and independence that are essential to basically carrying its mission of equal justice under the law,” Biden said during an event commemorating the Civil Rights Act last month.
Biden is also said to be considering whether to back a constitutional amendment that would eliminate broad immunity for presidents and other top officials—a way to counter the 6-3 Supreme Court decision on July 1 that granted broad presidential immunity in a ruling connected to Trump’s federal election interference case. He has pleaded not guilty in the case.
While the Supreme Court adopted its first code of conduct in November 2023, it was immediately met with criticism as it lacked a means of enforcement.
However, Biden’s efforts come as he has six months left in office as they have little chance of being approved with less than 100 days to go before Election Day, but experts say it’s an effort that could become a key campaign issue.
Legal analyst and senior legal affairs columnist at The Los Angeles Times, Harry Litman wrote in an op-ed piece on Tuesday that Biden’s proposals were more than “a mere political gesture” in the last 100 days or so of the election.
“Biden and the Democrats are also playing the long game, looking in particular to make the court a campaign issue,” he wrote. “Then if they win control of both chambers and the White House, they can portray their election as a mandate for substantial reforms.”
Courtesy: Newsweek
