Once again, Joe Biden is embracing a predictable and tiresome ploy to gin up votes by vilifying the justices on our nation’s highest court.
You could set your watch to it.
An election is fast approaching, so on Monday our lame-duck president is trotting out the same politically-driven bromide to reform the U.S. Supreme Court that we’ve heard so many times before. Naturally, his party’s replacement, Kamala Harris, is all on board.
But like many of Biden’s misbegotten proposals, they are mostly unconstitutional. Moreover, Joe’s public support has all but evaporated, which renders his power play even more feckless.
Democrats cannot simply pass a law to impose term limits on justices because life terms are embedded in the Constitution. Hence, it requires amending our founding document, which is such a high bar that it has zero chance of ever happening.
Ironically, Biden is calling for an amendment to override the Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity decision. 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 nor Democrats have.
Never mind that the immunity decision protects Biden and future Democrat presidents from the kind of specious prosecutions that have bedeviled former President Donald Trump. That would require deep thought and common sense.
Biden, in his senescence, is likely oblivious to how difficult 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.
Good luck with all of that. Liechtenstein has a better chance at the Olympic Games.
Finally, Biden’s other quixotic idea of imposing ethical controls on justices violates the separation of powers principle. The legislative and executive branches cannot 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 opposing the very kind of radical reforms he now advocates. 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.
In 1937, FDR launched a similar 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.
