The president has discussed the plans with constitutional scholars and members of Congress in recent weeks.

President Biden is finalizing plans to endorse major changes to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks, including proposals for legislation to establish term limits for the justices and an enforceable ethics code, according to two people briefed on the plans.

He is also weighing whether to call for a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad immunity for presidents and other constitutional officeholders, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

The announcement would mark a major shift for Biden, a former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has long resisted calls to reform the high court. The potential changes come in response to growing outrage among his supporters about recent ethics scandals surrounding Justice Clarence Thomas and decisions by the new court majority that have changed legal precedent on issues including abortion and federal regulatory powers.

  • teft
    183•4 months ago

    Proposing the changes could excite the voters enough to give him control of both chambers. Even announcing it might shift the needle for some fence sitters.

    • Tiefling IRL
      130•4 months ago

      That’s exactly what we need right now. There are almost no undecided voters left, just unmotivated voters. We need something to energize voters who have been feeling ignored by the DNC, at best.

      • @[email protected]English
        31•4 months ago

        Seriously. His passive approach to the upcoming election has thusfar been infuriating. It’s like he’s assumed that not being Trump will be enough to win it for him, while his support dwindles. We need something to get people excited about voting for him, and wide-sweeping governmental reforms could be just that, at least among folks who’re paying attention. The “Well, both sides are corrupt, so what does it matter?” crowd.

          • @[email protected]
            10•4 months ago

            The thing you’re missing is that left-leaning Americans have a hard time believing lip service like this because we’ve seen the Democrats fail to deliver on big promises over and over and over. Or they’ll do some crappy watered-down version of what they promised and use that as an excuse not to do anything else on the issue for decades (health care is in this category, minor changes in the right direction in 2010, and it wasn’t even until 2020 that the Democrats would admit maybe everything wasn’t solved yet).

            I’m gonna vote for Biden despite the fact that I do not believe he should be president, but I fully don’t believe a word of this. The Democrats have played this type of card right before every election, and it always ends in disappointment.

      • @[email protected]
        2•4 months ago

        Couldn’t have said it better myself. This is red meat for the base, but that’s what we need right now after weeks of feeling deflated.

    • @[email protected]English
      9•4 months ago

      How many times have the DNC lead people to the polls with big promises, then half way, if at all, deliver? Ive been able to vote since Reagan and its been the same thing every election. This is stuff he should have tried to tackle his first or second year. We are 15 seconds to the end of the fourth quarter and hes trying to throw a Hail Mary in the wrong direction

      • @[email protected]
        5•4 months ago

        The downvotes on you are infuriating. That’s just people sticking their heads in the sand. Democrats always whip out the carrot right before an election. Then let it rot afterwards.

        Still waiting on that student loan debt memo, Biden. I’d really like to know why you couldn’t even try to do anything on your 2020 promise until right before the 2022 midterms.

          • @[email protected]
            6•4 months ago

            I will vote. But you pretending like Biden wasn’t blatantly double-dipping on a campaign promise doesn’t help.

            I voted for him in 2020 based on his promises, and all I got was a knife held over me for two years until it was politically expedient for him to bother even trying. He could have already been on a new attempt by the midterms, they had that memo April 2021. They promised to release it. They never did, and it got struck down like we all thought it would.

            It’s the same story with every fucking policy. The Democrats waste time twiddling their thumbs until they think they can squeeze more political points out of it, they don’t care about actually doing anything.

            This Supreme Court reform is gonna be the same thing. They’re going to milk this through 2024 but never actually do anything, and then sit on it until 2026 before even trying. Meanwhile he could have done this years ago and we could have already moved past whatever BS the Republicans will use to stop it and started on the next plan.

            I’m so fucking tired of empty promises.