The White House announces an insurrection to ‘reform’ the Supreme Court

 Here is a little Legal clarification on the one below on SCOTUS

The Constitution means what it says. It establishes all the lawful conditions that may be placed on each branch of government. However, Joe Biden announced today that his explicit goal is to override those conditions and he does so in a way manifestly intended to delegitimize the Supreme Court in the eyes of at least half of America. This is, effectively, an insurrection.

The Founders who ratified the Constitution bent their efforts to one purpose: decentralizing power to maximize individual liberty. That’s why they created a tripartite, balanced government, giving each branch unique powers, along with limited checks and balances over the other branches.

Article III, which establishes the judicial branch of the federal government, is not complicated. Section 1 establishes the Court.

The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.

Because there is no term of office stated (unlike the case for Congress and the presidency), as long as federal judges display that “good Behaviour” (a legal term of art) they serve for life or until retirement. The only way to remove a judge is through impeachment (the powers of which are divided between the House and the Senate in Article I).

Image (edited) from Pixabay. CC0.

That’s it. There’s nothing in there saying that Congress or the president can impose terms limit on the Supreme Court, which have been routinely rejected throughout American history, nor can they impose upon it a code of conduct.

We all know how the overlapping checks and balances work: Congress makes laws, the president must enforce those laws, and the Court system can review the laws for constitutional legitimacy or to determine whether the president is correctly enforcing them. In addition, some other overlaps include things such as Congress’s say in executive appointments and divisions of power regarding war. The goal, always, is to keep one branch from accruing too much power at the expense of the others.

For Biden, though, a senile lame-duck president, the sky is the limit when it comes to making unconstitutional demands. He’s gone in six months, and everything his handlers do now is dedicated to making the base happy.

That’s why Biden announced this morning that he wants a constitutional amendment to ban presidential immunity (which would destroy him if ever ratified), as well as congressional action to impose term limits and a code of conduct on the Supreme Court. Here’s the full text of his demands:

1. No Immunity for Crimes a Former President Committed in Office: President Biden shares the Founders’ belief that the President’s power is limited—not absolute—and must ultimately reside with the people. He is calling for a constitutional amendment that makes clear no President is above the law or immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office. This No One Is Above the Law Amendment will state that the Constitution does not confer any immunity from federal criminal indictment, trial, conviction, or sentencing by virtue of previously serving as President.

2. Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices: Congress approved term limits for the Presidency over 75 years ago, and President Biden believes they should do the same for the Supreme Court. The United States is the only major constitutional democracy that gives lifetime seats to its high court Justices. Term limits would help ensure that the Court’s membership changes with some regularity; make timing for Court nominations more predictable and less arbitrary; and reduce the chance that any single Presidency imposes undue influence for generations to come. President Biden supports a system in which the President would appoint a Justice every two years to spend eighteen years in active service on the Supreme Court.

3. Binding Code of Conduct for the Supreme Court: President Biden believesthat Congress should pass binding, enforceable conduct and ethics rules that require Justices to disclose gifts, refrain from public political activity, and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have financial or other conflicts of interest. Supreme Court Justices should not be exempt from the enforceable code of conduct that applies to every other federal judge.

None of the above can happen, of course. The first demand (amending the Constitution to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States, which acknowledges immunity when a president exercises his plenary powers) requires Article V processes, which are intentionally laborious: (1) Two-thirds of both houses of Congress agree on a proposed Amendment, which is then sent to the states in the hope that three-quarters of them ratify it or (2) a constitutional convention convened by two-thirds of all state legislatures, with outcome of such a convention then sent to the states, at which time three-quarters must ratify the amendment.

With regard to ending presidential immunity, it’s never going to happen—and Biden should be grateful for that fact.

As for term limits and a binding code of conduct, Congress has no authority to impose on the Supreme Court a handicap that limits in any way the powers and freedoms granted to the Court under the Constitution. Indeed, in 1995’s U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, the Supreme Court noted James Madison’s concern about anything that would “vest ‘ ‘an improper & dangerous power in the Legislature,’ ‘ by which the Legislature’ ‘can by degrees subvert the Constitution.’’”

That principle guided the Court’s conclusion that “we reaffirm that the qualifications for service in Congress set forth in the text of the Constitution are ‘fixed,’ at least in the sense that they may not be supplemented by Congress.” The same overarching constitutional principle obviously applies to the terms of service for the Supreme Court.

Whatever Biden, the bottom-of-his-class legal scholar and never-taught-a-class law professor, may think, his handlers know that all these proposals are complete garbage. The first (to amend the Constitution) will never happen, and the second and third cannot happen. The sole purpose for putting this out there is to instill in American minds the belief that the United States Supreme Court is an illegitimate organization and that its rulings can be ignored (as Biden, boastfully, has done before). And if you doubt that, look at how the same presidential “fact sheet” explains the reason for these unconstitutional demands:

In recent years, the Supreme Court has overturned long-established legal precedents protecting fundamental rights.[*] This Court has gutted civil rights protections, taken away a woman’s right to choose, and now granted Presidents broad immunity from prosecution for crimes they commit in office.

At the same time, recent ethics scandals involving some Justices have caused the public to question the fairness and independence that are essential for the Court to faithfully carry out its mission to deliver justice for all Americans.

President Biden believes that no one—neither the President nor the Supreme Court—is above the law.

Democrats have told us for over three years now that attacking a branch of the federal government is an insurrection. That’s exactly what Biden and his handlers are doing here.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/07/the_white_house_announces_an_insurrection_to_reform_the_supreme_court.html