Biden plans to announce sweeping Supreme Court reform next week

In announcing his withdrawal from the election race, Joe Biden promised that, before leaving the White House, he would attempt to reform the US Supreme Court, attacked by Democrats for allegedly being "ultraconservative." According to Politico, details on such a proposal are close to being finalized and it is possible that the president will announce a plan to thoroughly reform the nation's highest court as soon as next week.

According to the Politico report, Biden wants to impose several changes to the Supreme Court and also a constitutional amendment to reverse the high court's decision on presidential immunity in a case linked to former President Donald Trump.

Among the plans for reform, Biden plans to establish term limits for judges, a code of ethics and also the aforementioned constitutional amendment to limit presidential immunity (which is already limited according to the Supreme Court's own ruling weeks ago).

"Biden is likely to endorse establishing term limits for justices and an enforceable code of ethics, in an announcement that represents a remarkable shift for a president who had long resisted calls to overhaul the high court," reads Politico.

The proposal on the constitutional amendment follows the high court's July 1 ruling that presidents are protected from prosecution for "official acts" during their time in office in a case brought by former President Trump.

The Supreme Court generally did not rule on whether Trump's actions related to the case, which relate to the events of Jan. 6, can be considered as official acts or not, but instead sent the case back to a lower court for an assessment of the former president's actions that day.

However, Democrats starkly criticized the Supreme Court because the ruling, although it did not specifically uphold Trump's defense, delayed legal proceedings against the former Republican president until after the elections in November.

Since that time, Democrats have made calls for Biden to reform the Supreme Court, and the president publicly expressed willingness to try, however unlikely.

In an Oval Office speech Wednesday to explain his decision to withdraw from the 2024 election, Biden said reform was "fundamental to our democracy."

"Over the next six months, I’ll be focused on doing my job as president. That means I’ll continue to lower costs for hard-working families, grow our economy. I’ll keep defending our personal freedoms and our civil rights, from the right to vote to the right to choose (...) And I’m going to call for Supreme Court reform because this is critical to our democracy, Supreme Court reform."

According to reports, Biden is expected to propose reform during a trip to Texas, where he will speak at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin.

However, a reform of the Supreme Court or passage of a constitutional amendment would be really complicated because of how the rules are designed and the current distribution of Congress in both Houses.

"Imposing term limits and an ethics code on the Supreme Court would likely require legislation. The current divided Congress is not expected to take up the issue before the end of the year. And even if Democrats control both chambers after the election, they’re all but certain to fall short of the 60 Senate seats needed to break a filibuster," according to Politico.

The amendment would be even more of a challenge, as it would require the support of two-thirds of both houses of Congress or a convention called by two-thirds of the states which, in turn, would need the approval of three-fourths of the state legislatures.