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Once again, President Joe Biden has embraced a predictable and tiresome ploy to gin up votes by vilifying the justices on our nation’s highest court.
The timing is no coincidence.
An election is fast approaching, so our lame duck president trotted out the same jaded and politically-driven bromide to “reform” the U.S. Supreme Court that we’ve heard so many times before.
In his speech on Monday at the LBJ Presidential Library in Texas outlining his plan, Biden railed against the “extreme positions of the Supreme Court.”
Except those positions have not been extreme at all.
As former U.S. Attorney General William Barr explained in a Fox News op-ed, “the actual numbers do not back up the hysterical claims of a ‘partisan Court.’” Nearly half of the rulings were unanimous in the most recent term. Only a small number —eleven— were decided along ideological lines.
President Biden’s Supreme Court proposals are little more than typical electoral pablum for Democrats but not remotely viable. It is an undemocratic ruse by an incumbent president who claims he wants to ‘save democracy.’
Naturally, Biden’s newly anointed replacement,Vice President Kamala Harris, is all on board. She reflexively endorsed his proposal because, she claimed, the high court is mired in a “clear crisis of confidence.”
Except no such crisis exists.
BIDEN, HARRIS CALL FOR SUPREME COURT TERM LIMITS, CODE OF CONDUCT, LIMITS ON PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY
Roughly half of Americans approve of the job the Supreme Court is doing, according to a recent Marquette Law School survey. By comparison, the president earns substantially lower ratings, while Congress garners a humiliating approval mark of 13 percent in the latest Gallup poll.
To mix biblical metaphors, perhaps the other two branches of government should heal themselves before casting the first stone at the third branch.
Like many of Biden’s misbegotten proposals, his three-point plan is mostly unconstitutional. Moreover, Joe’s public support has all but evaporated, which renders his power play even more feckless than usual.
Despite what the current president advocates, the legislature cannot simply pass a law to impose term limits on justices. The reason should be obvious —life terms on the Supreme Court are embedded in the Constitution. Hence, it requires the arduous process of amending our founding document, which presents such a high bar that it has zero chance of ever succeeding.
Ironically, Biden is calling for an amendment to override the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision announced earlier this month. But, again, while that offers catnip to liberals who loath the ruling, it would take years and the kind of political capital that neither Biden/Harris nor Democrats have.
THE GROWING THREAT BEHIND BIDEN’S SUPREME COURT PROPOSAL
Never mind that the immunity decision protects Biden and future Democratic presidents from the type of noxious prosecutions that have bedeviled former President Donald Trump. That would necessitate deep thought and common sense. There is precious little of that in our nation’s capital these days.
Biden, in his senescence, seems oblivious to how onerous it is to amend the Constitution of the United States. The proposal itself requires a two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress or consent by two-thirds of the states by a convention. Thereafter, ratification demands a vote by three-fourths of the states.
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Good luck with that. Liechtenstein had a better chance at the Olympic Games (and already lost.)
Finally, Biden’s other quixotic idea of imposing ethical controls on Supreme Court justices violates the separation of powers principle. The legislative and executive branches can’t enforce their will on the independence of the judicial branch. The Constitution was crafted to combat such meddling.
In reality, Biden’s proposals are little more than typical electoral pablum for Democrats, but not remotely viable. It is an undemocratic ruse by an incumbent president who claims he wants to “save democracy.”
Let’s not forget that Biden spent decades vigorously opposing the very kind of radical reforms he now espouses. He famously called it a “bonehead idea.” It was, and still is. However, it is amusing that an 81-year-old president wants to age-out younger high court justices who are far more sentient than he is.
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In 1937, FDR launched a comparable scheme to “pack” the Supreme Court by adding a new justice for every existing one older than 70 years who refused to retire. As popular as the then-president was, the maneuver backfired spectacularly.
Not that he realizes it, but Joe Biden is no Franklin Roosevelt.