Biden to push for Supreme Court ethics reform, term limits and amendment to overturn immunity ruling, sources say

By MJ Lee and Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — President Joe Biden is seriously considering publicly endorsing major reforms at the Supreme Court, a move that would make him the first sitting president in generations to back seismic changes to the way the nation’s highest court operates, according to two sources familiar with the deliberations.

Chief among the changes Biden is planning to publicly back are term limits for the nine justices, who currently serve lifetime appointments. The president is also said to be preparing to throw his support behind an ethics code for the court that would contain an enforcement mechanism, which was notably absent from the code the court adopted last year.

Liberal lawmakers and groups have been calling for these actions in recent years.

Additionally, Biden is considering whether he should push for a constitutional amendment that would effectively reverse the historic ruling from the court earlier this month that gave presidents immunity for some actions they take while in office.

The Washington Post first reported the president’s plans to publicly support the reforms.

Biden alluded to the fact that he was considering major reforms on a call with members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus over the weekend, a source familiar with the call told CNN.

He told lawmakers that while he did not want to get ahead of himself, major reforms were likely coming and that he was in the process of consulting with constitutional lawyers, the source said, adding that Biden did not get into specific details during this meeting.

If adopted by Congress, the changes would represent some of the biggest to hit the court in decades. Progressives have in recent years been pushing for such dramatic reforms at the court, but Biden has not fully embraced their proposed reforms, instead taking a much more cautious approach to the court that has included him forming a commission to look at potential reforms during the early days of his presidency.

But as the Supreme Court came under intense scrutiny in 2023 following a series of blockbuster investigative pieces that turned a spotlight on the alleged ethical lapses of several of the justices, Democrats in Congress pushed for meaningful reforms at the court, though the issue never fully gained steam. The nine justices eventually released an ethics code in November that did little to assuage concerns from the court’s critics.

The reforms backed by Biden would need congressional approval and the constitutional amendment would require ratification by 38 states in a process that seems nearly impossible to succeed.

The issue of lifetime appointments was illuminated by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020, who was one of just a few justices this century to die while serving on the bench. Her death gave then-President Donald Trump an opportunity to appoint his third justice to the court, infuriating some Democrats who had wanted the liberal icon to step down during Barack Obama’s presidency.

The court’s decision earlier this month in Trump’s immunity case also drew negative attention to the court from Democrats. Though the opinion penned by Chief Justice John Roberts technically allows special counsel Jack Smith to inch his election subversion case agains the former president toward resolution, it left many questions unresolved – making it increasingly unlikely that a trial can get underway before the November election.

A concurrence from Justice Clarence Thomas was then used by Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida in order to throw out the mishandling classified documents case against Trump.

The Supreme Court has faced dismal approval ratings in recent years, with the public’s view of the court worsening after a series of highly charged rulings – chief among them is the conservative majority’s 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade – and the controversies over ethics and transparency among some of the justices, including conservative Justices Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Biden has cited the Roe decision and others in his reelection bid.

Asked about reproductive rights and the Supreme Court in an interview Tuesday with BET News’ Ed Gordon that aired on “CBS Evening News,” Biden warned about what he believes a future Trump presidency would mean in terms of future appointments to the bench.

“There’s probably gonna be two more appointments to the court. There’s probably two people who are going to resign – uh resign, retire,” Biden said. “Just imagine – if he has two more appointments on that, what that means forever.”

News of Biden’s forthcoming announcement was met with immediate praise from some progressive court reform groups.

“Reforming this broken court is imperative – not just for protecting the hard-won rights of the last century, but for making any progress as a nation in the future,” said Sarah Lipton-Lubet, president of the group Take Back the Court. “While ethics rules and term limits alone cannot fully restore balance and independence, today’s announcement is a watershed moment in the fight to take back the court.”

CNN’s Sam Fossum contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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