President Joe Biden calls for 3 ‘bold reforms to restore trust and accountability’ to the Supreme Court, including getting rid of presidential immunity

The U.S. Supreme Court decision granting presidents broad immunity from prosecution for crimes they commit in office came down more than a month ago, on July 1, but things have been a bit busy in U.S. politics since then, so the decision and what it means for our country has flown under the radar for many Americans.

As President Joe Biden wrote earlier this week in a Washington Post editorial, America “was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law. Not the president of the United States. Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. No one.”

The 6-3 SCOTUS decision flies in the face of that principle by allowing sitting presidents to do nearly anything they want to do and not face any consequences. “The only limits will be those that are self-imposed by the [president],” Biden wrote.

As we have now seen, even a president who incites an insurrection in an attempt to stop the certification of a free and fair election can do so without facing legal consequences thanks to the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The fear, Biden wrote, is that this is only the beginning. We have already seen the current high court throw out settled legal precedent, like overturning Roe v. Wade, and several Republican justices violated judicial ethics which has led to the public questioning the court’s dedication to fairness and equal justice. It’s hard to believe that anyone, regardless of political persuasion, could honestly defend a Supreme Court justice receiving gifts and vacations worth millions – not reporting them – and then hearing cases involving the people who gave them the gifts or took them on an expensive trip. It’s even more shocking when a justice doesn’t recuse themself from hearing cases regarding the Jan. 6 insurrection when their spouse was personally involved in the attempted overthrow of the U.S. government.

“What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms,” Biden wrote.

In his editorial, the president calls for three “bold reforms to restore trust and accountability to the court and our democracy”:

1. A constitutional amendment called the No One Is Above the Law Amendment. The amendment would clearly state that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office.

2. Term limits for Supreme Court justices. Biden suggests creating a system in which the president would appoint a justice every two years who would then serve 18 years on the Supreme Court.

3. Create a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court. “The court’s current voluntary ethics code is weak and self-enforced,” Biden wrote. “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.” As the president notes, all other federal judges are bound by an enforceable code of conduct and there’s no reason why Supreme Court justices aren’t or shouldn’t be.

Biden ends the editorial, writing, “In America, no one is above the law. In America, the people rule.”

The president’s call for bold reform is correct and necessary, and the American people – Democrat, Republican and Independent – support these reforms.