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Biden proposes unprecedented US Supreme Court reform

US Supreme Court news

The proposed change involves a constitutional amendment that would abolish criminal immunity for presidents.

US President Joe Biden has called for an end to immunity from prosecution for former holders of the country’s top political office, as part of a series of proposed Supreme Court reforms.

Biden claimed that he plans to “restore trust” in the American judicial system, in a piece published by the Washington Post on Monday.

Arguing for his so-called “No One Is Above the Law Amendment,” Biden stated that he believes that the US president’s power should be “limited, not absolute” and slammed the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in July to grant presidents broad immunity from prosecution for crimes they commit in office.

The ruling was made after Biden’s federal prosecutors attempted to charge former US President Donald Trump with four criminal counts related to the 2020 presidential election, accusing him of conspiring to overturn its results and obstructing its certification.

The primary changes proposed by Biden include a constitutional amendment that would strip former presidents of immunity for crimes committed while in office, term limits for Supreme Court justices and the establishment of a binding code of conduct for the high court.

“[The July ruling] means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do,” Biden wrote, suggesting that “the only limits will be those that are self-imposed by the person occupying the Oval Office.”

As for term limits for Supreme Court Justices, Biden said he opposed lifetime seats for the high court and proposed limiting them to 18 years of active service, with the president being able to appoint a new justice only every two years.

He also argued that a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court is “common sense” and suggested that the current voluntary ethics code is “weak and self-enforced.”

“Justices should be required to disclose gifts, refrain from public political activity and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have financial or other conflicts of interest,” Biden wrote.

Biden said that all three of his proposals are already supported by the “majority of Americans – as well as conservative and liberal scholars” and suggested that these changes must be made to prevent the abuse of presidential power and “strengthen the guardrails of democracy.”

While Biden’s proposal has been backed by the Democrats and his Vice President Kamala Harris, Republican lawmakers, who hold a majority in the House of Representatives, have dismissed the plan as “dead on arrival.”

Donald Trump has also shrugged off the US president’s effort as “a typical Biden con,” telling Fox News that the proposal is “going nowhere” and that Biden “knows that too.”

Image credit: Fine Photographics

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Source:RT News

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Biden and KamalToe are doing this for their unhinged lunatic voting base. There’s no way any of this garbage will ever pass into law.

    The US government is setup as coequal branches. The executive cannot tell the legislative what to do. The US founding fathers gave the SC justices lifetime appointments precisely so that they couldn’t be fired or intimidated for incurring the wrath of a particular regime when ruling/voting a certain way (which is what this proposal is all about). They are supposed to be “SUPREME”, it’s in the name for a reason.

    In order to make these suggestions even remotely possible, they would have to pass a constitutional amendment which requires 2/3rds of the states to vote for it (which is NEVER going to happen), and even then the Supreme Court would still be within their powers to read it and reply, “nope🖕”

    This is literally just for show.

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