It is probable that President Biden’s Supreme Court reform package — which includes 18-year term limits and an enforceable ethics code for justices — is, as House Speaker Mike Johnson put it, “ dead on arrival .” Regardless, it is what the court, the country, and our democracy needs. Indeed, the court is weathering arguably the most severe legitimacy crisis in its 235-year history.
A barrage of ethics scandals — including impeachment articles that were filed against Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas in July over reports that they had failed to disclose luxury trips and flights from wealthy donors — have cast a persistent shadow over its integrity. Meanwhile, landmark rulings over abortion, gun rights, and presidential immunity, rulings that seem to be based on politics, leave our democracy and civil liberties in a precarious position. These have triggered historic lows in public confidence.
An AP-NORC poll released in June found that just 16 percent of adults surveyed have “a great deal” of confidence in the court and 70 percent believe that justices “are more likely to try to shape the law to fit their own ideologies.” The status quo is an untenable dynamic; our nation cannot survive if the most powerful yet unaccountable branch of government lacks any faith of the governed. The court has become politicized to a breaking point, and it mandates changes.
Biden’s proposal, particularly his call for term limits, more than meets the moment. After a.