Joe Biden’s base wants Supreme Court reform. He doesn’t
In the wake of conservative rulings, progressives are seeking expansion and term limits.
Progressives responded to last week’s sweeping Supreme Court decisions with a clear message: It is time to reshape the high court. Joe Biden isn’t convinced.
The US President, a staunch institutionalist, has largely rejected calls from liberals to push for term limits for judges and for expanding the size of the court, warning that doing so could further politicise the judiciary.
That position could put the President, heading into the 2024 election, at odds with young, progressive voters who are deeply critical of the conservative court.
Some of Mr Biden’s advisers maintain his reluctance to embrace the issue could appeal to the moderate voters he needs if he wants to be re-elected.
Young voters turned out in high numbers in the mid-term elections last November, helping to stave off the deep losses for Democrats that some pollsters predicted but there are signs those same voters are reacting to 80-year-old Mr Biden’s decision to run for re-election with apathy — in part because of his age — and wish they had other choices.
“The voters that are coming of age politically now have only known a court that has been completely politicised,” said Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice.
“They do not think of the court in the gauzy terms that people of Joe Biden’s vintage do.”
Over the course of just two days, the court up-ended affirmative action, found web designers and other creative businesses have a First Amendment right to refuse work for same-sex weddings and overturned a Biden administration program that would have slashed student-loan debt for tens of millions of Americans.
The rulings, widely expected, drew praise from Republicans and shook the Democratic establishment – though progressives were pleased Mr Biden said he would try to revive his student-debt plan via a different legal path. The rulings also renewed longstanding calls from liberals to redefine the way the court has operated for more than 100 years, with some making the case that it is long past time for Mr Biden to embrace the issue.
“President Biden should run on term limits in 2024. If he does, it will perhaps wake the court up so that they stop showing contempt for American public sentiment,” said Californian Democrat representative Ro Khanna, who has proposed legislation that would establish an 18-year term limit for future judges. He argued that the current court majority was “dominated by stubborn, old, extremist jurists who have contempt and little understanding for modern American life.”
Several Democrats, including senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, have pushed legislation to remake the court. In recent months, other powerful groups on the left, including Planned Parenthood, have endorsed the effort.
Republicans have steadfastly opposed expanding the court. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has offered a constitutional amendment that would lock in the current size of nine judges.
The court has existed in its current form, consisting of nine judges, since 1869. Before that, the composition changed several times. In 1937, Franklin Roosevelt proposed adding judges to a conservative Supreme Court that had thwarted many of his New Deal initiatives. The court-packing plan failed in congress. Public confidence in the Supreme Court has declined, driven in large part by the unpopularity of its ruling last year overturning a constitutional right to abortion.
Some polls have found support for term limits for judges, but opinion on adding additional members has been divided.
Mr Biden said last week the court had done “more to unravel basic rights and basic decisions” than any Supreme Court in recent history but added: “If we start the process of trying to expand the court, we’re going to politicise it, maybe forever, in a way that is not healthy.”
The White House has also declined to say whether Mr Biden would support a code of ethics for the court after reports of some judges failing to disclose gifts from wealthy benefactors. A bipartisan panel appointed by Mr Biden didn’t produce any formal recommendations. Even if he endorsed a reimagining of the court, it could take years to build the political momentum needed to impose term limits or add judges.
Activists think Mr Biden will shift on the issue over time, noting that it took him years to change his position on the Senate’s filibuster rules. “He’s probably going to be the last domino to fall,” said Mr Fallon. “He’s an institutionalist at heart, and he’s not going to be somebody who is quick to acknowledge the loss of legitimacy that the court has suffered.”
The Wall Street Journal
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