US media outlets, citing White House sources, reported on Tuesday (16) that President Joe Biden plans to present a proposal to change the functioning of the country’s Supreme Court.
According to reports, the bill, which would need to be approved by the US Congress, would establish temporary terms for judges and a code of ethics regulated by law.
On the first point, today the United States Constitution only states that Supreme Court justices “shall hold office while they are of good behavior.” In other words, if the judge does not have mental health or ethical problems (which could lead to impeachment in the Legislature), he or she can hold office for the rest of his or her life.
In the second issue, the court adopted its first code of ethics in November last year, but, according to analysts, the rule did not impose significant new requirements, so that monitoring compliance depends on the understanding of each judge.
Since taking office in January 2021, Biden has suffered significant defeats in the Supreme Court, which currently has a conservative majority: six of the nine judges were appointed by Republican presidents, three of them during Donald Trump’s term (2017-2021).
In early 2022, the court struck down a federal government rule that required all workers at large companies to be vaccinated against Covid-19 or wear masks and undergo weekly testing.
In the middle of that year, the biggest setback for the Democratic administration came: the Supreme Court overturned the jurisprudence of the 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which had determined that American states could not have laws banning abortion before so-called viability (when the fetus is able to survive outside the uterus, around 24 weeks of gestation).
The decision gave states back the freedom to legislate on abortion as they wished, and many Republican-run states have reinstated or implemented stricter pro-life laws.
Last month, Democrats suffered significant new defeats in Supreme Court trials.
The Supreme Court reduced the power of federal agencies by establishing that courts must rely on their own interpretation of laws when there is no clear understanding in the legislation on the subject in dispute, rather than taking into account the interpretation made by federal government agencies.
Additionally, in response to a demand from Trump, the court granted partial immunity to current and former American presidents.
The Supreme Court has ruled that current or former occupants of the highest office in the American Executive Branch can claim immunity for “official acts” performed during their terms in office.
The ruling has already had an impact on the criminal cases against Trump. The sentencing of the Stormy Daniels case, in which the Republican former president was found guilty by a jury in New York in late May, has been postponed until September, as the defense’s requests to have the case dismissed in light of the Supreme Court’s decision can be considered.
This week, a federal judge in Florida dismissed the lawsuit against Trump over classified documents taken to his Mar-a-Lago residence after his presidential term ended.
Judge Aileen Cannon considered the appointment of a specific federal prosecutor for the case unconstitutional, corroborating a thesis by a Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas, who also pointed out signs of unconstitutionality to the same extent in the case in which Trump is a defendant for the attack on the Capitol in 2021 – a process that was the basis for the Supreme Court’s decision on partial immunity.
Democratic congresswoman calls for impeachment of Supreme Court justices
Thomas and another conservative justice, Samuel Alito, were the targets of an impeachment request last week by Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who accused them of receiving “millions of dollars in gifts from individuals with cases before the court.”
The congresswoman also cited that Thomas refused to declare himself disqualified from judging cases involving the “legal” and “financial interests” of his wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas. The two judges did not rule on the impeachment request filed by Ocasio-Cortez.
Alito was embroiled in another controversy in May, when The New York Times reported that an upside-down American flag was flown in front of the justice’s residence in Alexandria, Virginia, just days after the attack on the Capitol, and that another flag, bearing the message “Appeal to Heaven,” was placed in front of the justice’s beach house in New Jersey last year.
The two flags are symbols of Trump supporters who waved them during the 2021 storming of the US Legislative building. Alito claimed the flags were placed by his wife and that he only realized it later. The judge refused a request from Democratic lawmakers to disqualify himself from cases involving Trump.
On Tuesday, Trump criticized Biden’s plans for changes to the Supreme Court.
“The Radical Left Democrats are desperately trying to ‘play referee’ by calling for an illegal and unconstitutional attack on our sacred United States Supreme Court. The reason these communists are so disillusioned is because their illegal witch hunts are failing everywhere,” the former president wrote on his social media account, Truth Social.
“The Democrats are trying to interfere in the presidential election and destroy our justice system by attacking their political opponent, me, and our honorable Supreme Court. We must fight for our fair and independent courts and protect our country. MAGA 2024!” he added, citing the English acronym for his campaign slogan (“Make America Great Again”).
#Impeachment #request #temporary #mandates #bill #Democrats #pressure #Supreme #Court