The Patriot Post® · Biden Spells Out His SCOTUS 'Reform' Plan

After a stinging series of defeats from a conservative Supreme Court and the failure of its court-packing scheme, the Harris/Biden administration has come up with another bright idea: term limits for Supreme Court justices.

Under the plan, revealed yesterday by Joe Biden in The Washington Post and “co-proposed” by Kamala Harris, Supreme Court justices would serve a term of 18 years, with a new justice selected every two years — basically ensuring each president would pick two to four justices depending on length of service.

In the op-ed, Biden trumpeted his experience with the Court. “I served as a U.S. senator for 36 years, including as chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee,” he wrote. “I have overseen more Supreme Court nominations as senator, vice president and president than anyone living today.” In a separate statement, Harris added, “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.”

While the Democrats have criticized the recent Supreme Court ruling granting limited immunity to presidents for decisions made in office, they’ve also [accused] Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas of conflicts of interest and ethics violations. Both justices have served over 18 years, meaning they would be among the first to go should the law somehow pass.

Biden has been working on the plan for several weeks, “consulting with constitutional lawyers” on a package that included the aforementioned term limits as well as ethics reform.

However, the Biden/Harris scheme is going nowhere in a narrowly split Congress, which is unlikely to consider such generational legislation on behalf of a lame-duck president. As The Wall Street Journal points out, “The left has been calling to restructure the Supreme Court since originalist Justices became a majority. In 2020 Mr. Biden, realizing that such proposals might scare voters, promised to set up a commission to study the question.” That commission came out with a 294-page report, which has been gathering dust since December 2021.

Instead, this new push is intended as an election issue, and the Democrats believe, thanks to a media that has turned voters against the Supreme Court, that they can turn it to their advantage in both the presidential and congressional races. As our Thomas Gallatin correctly pointed out, “Biden’s targeting of the Court is just the latest play in the Democrats’ long-running effort to assert authority over the conservative-leaning Court. The Leftmedia smear campaign against Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito over bogus ethics complaints was intended to lay the groundwork for this move by Biden against the Court.”

Here’s another reminder: If Democrats controlled the Court, there would be no issue. “Democrats have long called for changing the rules when they aren’t getting their way politically,” continues Gallatin. “They are not concerned with fairness; rather, they are concerned with power.”

Notably, there’s no similar push to reform the Fifth Circuit, which is arguably a more conservative court than the Supreme Court based on its rulings. “The Supreme Court overturned about two-thirds of the decisions it considered this term from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, widely regarded as the nation’s most conservative appellate forum,” according to The Washington Times.

Thus, this “reform” ploy is just a charade — one that would never have been brought up had Democrats controlled the High Court.