Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said Tuesday that President Biden’s proposed term limits for Supreme Court justices are “unconstitutional” and will be “dead on arrival” in Congress.
McConnell, one of the Supreme Court’s most ardent defenders in the Senate, said he was “surprised” that Biden, a former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, proposed authorizing presidents to appoint justices every two years and limiting them to 18 years in active service.
“I couldn’t be more disappointed. This is a man who was chairman of the Judiciary Committee for a long time. He absolutely knows what he recommended is unconstitutional, to try to limit the terms of the Supreme Court justices who under the Constitution are appointed for life,” McConnell said of Biden.
“That shows you the depth to which they have gone lately to attack the Supreme Court because they don’t like the current makeup of the court and decisions they disapprove of,” McConnell said of Democrats.
“The way to change” the makeup of the court “is to win the presidency and the Senate and appoint people that you like, but not to try to break — break — the Supreme Court,” he said. “This is a level that I think is just simply unacceptable.”
“I know he knows better, and such a proposal would be dead on arrival in Congress,” he said.
Biden has also called for a constitutional amendment to make clear that no former president would have immunity for crimes committed while in office and for a binding code of conduct for Supreme Court justices.
In a Washington Post op-ed, Biden cited the Supreme Court’s recent 6-3 decision granting presidents broad immunity from prosecution for crimes committed as official acts, as well as the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade and the right to abortion.
Biden noted that he served as a senator for 36 years and as chair and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.
“I have great respect for our institutions and separation of powers,” he wrote. “What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) declined to say Tuesday whether he would bring Biden’s proposed reforms up for a vote in the Senate, but he declared the court is in a “morass” because of its recent controversial decisions and allegations of unethical conduct by conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
“Look, the Supreme Court is a morass, a true morass, both ethically and substantively,” Schumer told reporters. “It is just outrageous that hard-right, wealthy people who are actually paying groups to go to the Supreme Court are at the [same] time giving gifts worth in total over millions of dollars, whether it be trips or buses or cars or hotel stays, to those same Supreme Court justices.
“This court is taking away people’s rights left and right,” he added, citing the decision to overturn the national right to abortion.
“I think they need a lot of changes, and we’re looking at a whole lot of things,” he said.