Biden Considers Massive Overhaul Of Supreme Court

During a phone call with the Progressive Caucus last weekend, President Biden said that he is considering a major push to overhaul the lawless US Supreme Court, but he'll need legislative help to be able to do it. The proposal would call for an official, enforceable code of ethics for the Court, along with term limits for Justices. These reforms would require not just Congress, but also state legislatures to be on board to amend the Constitution, but it isn't impossible, as Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

In a phone call last weekend with members of the Progressive Caucus from the House of Representatives, president Biden teased a little bit about what he would like to do with the United States Supreme Court, but he says he's not ready to fully announce the plan just yet because he needs their help because Biden, as president of the United States, has no real power to do anything to the United States Supreme Court. But if he can get Congress on board to enact the reforms that he is going to propose in the coming days or weeks or whatever it is, then we have a real shot at reigning in the lawlessness that has become rampant on that Supreme Court. Two of the biggest proposals that we do know about, of course, would be term limits for the United States Supreme Court, which would require a constitutional amendment. And the second would be an enforceable code of ethics for the judges on the Supreme Court.

Because right now, every other court in the country, including federally appointed judges, they have codes of ethics. You violate your ethics. You can be removed from the bench, the US Supreme Court, not a peep, not a word, not a single code that they have to abide by. They can break the law openly, flagrantly, and the only thing they would have to worry about is impeachment, which we all know can't happen because we don't have the numbers to do it for either party. So they are effectively lawless by definition. Biden wants to change that, and I think this is a great proposal. Again, it's also something that that may not even be able to happen. In order to amend the Constitution, you would have to have two thirds votes in Congress or at a convention called for by two thirds of the states, followed by ratification, by three fourths of the state legislatures.

So you gotta get Congress, you gotta get state legislatures, or you gotta get the states and you gotta get the state legislatures. That is insanely difficult, especially considering the fact that putting term limits on the Supreme Court or an enforceable code of ethics is going to result in far more Supreme Court vacancies and whichever political parties holding the majority on the court isn't gonna like that 'cause they want to keep their majority. But these are reforms that are needed. These are common sense reforms, like that's what I love about it. These are common sense things that, by the way, a majority of people in the country want term limits right now. I is my number one priority, uh, which by the way, I think should extend to every single public office here in the United States. Nobody should be able to just run for office every year for 50 years that no hell no. Stop that. Put an end to it. Legislatively and constitutionally, the Supreme Court and all of the other federal

Courts, when those people get appointed, they're there for the rest of their lives unless they get impeached and removed. And that never happens. It has happened, but it, it's not gonna happen in modern times. Trust me. So we need those people to get out 20 years maybe. Sure, that's a long time. Give them 20 years and then they're gone. Make it 15, make it 10 if you want. I don't care. But nobody should have a job where they can't ever get fired, right? That's the point. Because it creates compency, it creates complacency, it breeds corruption, and that's what we're dealing with now on the Supreme Court. So whatever happens with President Biden, that remains to be seen as of this recording. But this is a good plan and let's hope the Democrats in Congress can get behind it.