President Joe Biden laid out a series of proposed changes Monday to the U.S. Supreme Court that included term limits, a constitutional amendment addressing the court’s recent decision on presidential immunity and an enforceable ethics code. But the proposed changes in all likelihood would require two constitutional amendments, a longshot in Congress given present political conditions, says Dan Urman, director of the law and public policy minor at Northeastern University, who teaches courses on the Supreme Court. The proposal is more like a bid for renewed support behind the cause of reform, as Biden looks to hand over the reins to Vice President Kamala Harris, he says.
“President Biden is a lame duck in every sense of the term, and that basically means that he doesn’t have the political capital to spend — and no one owes him any favors, really, in Congress,” Urman says. “The issue of reforming the Supreme Court came up in the primaries on the Democratic side in the 2020 presidential election, and out of all the candidates Biden was the least interested in reforming the court.”
