President Biden is finalizing plans to endorse major changes to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks, including proposals for legislation to establish term limits for the justices and an enforceable ethics code, according to two people briefed on the plans.

He is also weighing whether to call for a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad immunity for presidents and other constitutional officeholders, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

The announcement would mark a major shift for Biden, a former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has long resisted calls to reform the high court. The potential changes come in response to growing outrage among his supporters about recent ethics scandals surrounding Justice Clarence Thomas and decisions by the new court majority that have changed legal precedent on issues including abortion and federal regulatory powers.

  • teft@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Proposing the changes could excite the voters enough to give him control of both chambers. Even announcing it might shift the needle for some fence sitters.

    • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 months ago

      That’s exactly what we need right now. There are almost no undecided voters left, just unmotivated voters. We need something to energize voters who have been feeling ignored by the DNC, at best.

      • KoboldCoterie
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        4 months ago

        Seriously. His passive approach to the upcoming election has thusfar been infuriating. It’s like he’s assumed that not being Trump will be enough to win it for him, while his support dwindles. We need something to get people excited about voting for him, and wide-sweeping governmental reforms could be just that, at least among folks who’re paying attention. The “Well, both sides are corrupt, so what does it matter?” crowd.

        • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          As a non american I also don’t understand. So much good they did. And the R’s have so much bad stuff to their name… it should be hammer time… drive these points home.

          • doctordevice@lemmy.ca
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            4 months ago

            The thing you’re missing is that left-leaning Americans have a hard time believing lip service like this because we’ve seen the Democrats fail to deliver on big promises over and over and over. Or they’ll do some crappy watered-down version of what they promised and use that as an excuse not to do anything else on the issue for decades (health care is in this category, minor changes in the right direction in 2010, and it wasn’t even until 2020 that the Democrats would admit maybe everything wasn’t solved yet).

            I’m gonna vote for Biden despite the fact that I do not believe he should be president, but I fully don’t believe a word of this. The Democrats have played this type of card right before every election, and it always ends in disappointment.

            • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              Oh, no… that part I fully understand. Beiing dissapointed by your politicians is the norm unfortunately.

              I was more referring to the weak sauce messaging of the Dems.

              • They have a lot to be proud of in terms of achievements the last 3.5 years… They should hammer that.
              • The R’s have a lot of vile stuff to their name the past 3.5 years, they should point that out. (Especially the hypocrisy on subjects like… Well everything).

              And again, the watered down versions… Yeah… Trust me, I can relate.

              • nexusband@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                That’s also something I absolutely do not understand…yes, being disappointed is pretty normal in a democracy, it’s always a compromise. But not hammering down the facts what Democrats did this period to actually help every American is just Mind boggling.

                Especially 6 Months before an election, here in Germany you can’t stop any politician yapping away with what they have done. (Although, positive or negative always depends on one self…)

      • Furbag@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Couldn’t have said it better myself. This is red meat for the base, but that’s what we need right now after weeks of feeling deflated.

      • doctordevice@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        The downvotes on you are infuriating. That’s just people sticking their heads in the sand. Democrats always whip out the carrot right before an election. Then let it rot afterwards.

        Still waiting on that student loan debt memo, Biden. I’d really like to know why you couldn’t even try to do anything on your 2020 promise until right before the 2022 midterms.

          • doctordevice@lemmy.ca
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            4 months ago

            I will vote. But you pretending like Biden wasn’t blatantly double-dipping on a campaign promise doesn’t help.

            I voted for him in 2020 based on his promises, and all I got was a knife held over me for two years until it was politically expedient for him to bother even trying. He could have already been on a new attempt by the midterms, they had that memo April 2021. They promised to release it. They never did, and it got struck down like we all thought it would.

            It’s the same story with every fucking policy. The Democrats waste time twiddling their thumbs until they think they can squeeze more political points out of it, they don’t care about actually doing anything.

            This Supreme Court reform is gonna be the same thing. They’re going to milk this through 2024 but never actually do anything, and then sit on it until 2026 before even trying. Meanwhile he could have done this years ago and we could have already moved past whatever BS the Republicans will use to stop it and started on the next plan.

            I’m so fucking tired of empty promises.