President also says presidential immunity for crimes should be removed and ethics rules for justices should be stricter
Joe Biden has called for a series of reforms to the US Supreme Court, including the introduction of term limits for justices and a constitutional amendment to remove immunity for crimes committed by a president while in office.
In an op-ed published on Monday morning, the president said justices should be limited to a maximum of 18 years’ service on the court rather than the current lifetime appointment, and also said ethics rules should be strengthened to regulate justices’ behavior.
The call for reform comes after the supreme court ruled in early July that former presidents have some degree of immunity from prosecution, a decision that served as a major victory for Donald Trump amid his legal travails.
“This nation 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,” Biden wrote.
I agree, but I also think 18 seems a little long. I think 14 would probably be a good number, or maybe 16. I think having it off the 4-year cycle is a solid idea. I assume 18 was chosen because that’s two two-term presidents plus an extra 2 years to space it out to make it harder to game. I can see some of the reasons 18 was picked and I get it, but also 18 is the amount of time it takes to get the right to vote, which seems long for an unelected position to be held without the ability to give feedback.
Do you want an individual President to be able to select more than 50% of the Court?
If the answer is “no” then 18 years is going to need to be the minimum.
A 2-term President would get to nominate 4 justices with an 18-year term.
With 16-year terms, a 2-term President has a 50/50 shot of getting to nominate 5, depending on where in the SCOTUS cycle the President is elected.
16 is also problematic due to the number of seats on the Court. It’s best to have it be 1, 3, 9, or 18 to keep the cycle regular, and everything but 18 is way too short.
18 really does work out very well.