Boots & Sabers

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Owen

Everything but tech support.
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2031, 16 Jul 24

Biden Proposes Stacking the Supreme Court

Who is a threat to the Republic? It’s quite rich that Biden – a man who has been in government so long that he is going senile in office – would propose term limits.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is seriously considering proposals to establish term limits for U.S. Supreme Court justices, and an ethics code that would be enforceable under law amid growing concerns that the justices are not held accountable, according to three people briefed on the plans.

 

It would mark a major shift for Biden, the former head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has long resisted calls to reform the high court, though since taking office he has been increasingly vocal about his belief that the court is abandoning mainstream constitutional interpretation. The details were first reported by The Washington Post.

 

Any changes would require congressional approval, which would be unlikely in a divided Congress. But with Republican nominee Donald Trump bragging about putting the three justices on the high court who are now part of the conservative majority, Biden’s call for major changes could help animate his voters.

The Supreme Court leaned to the Left for my entire life until it swung to the Right under Trump. Republicans worked the entire time to win elections and try to make good selections (only about 50/50 successful) to change the philosophical makeup of the court. The Democrats just can’t stand it and don’t want to put in the work to swing it back. Instead, they just want to change the rules to make it easier for them.

This will never make it into law. If it did, this court would likely strike it down anyway. But the fact that Biden is willing to go there to appease his rabid Marxist base speaks to how much our Republic is on the knife’s edge.

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2031, 16 July 2024

11 Comments

  1. jonnyv

    Another lie. Not what has been reported at all. Term limits and ethics code is what has been reported.

    Not sure I would get behind term limits, but a solid ethics code isn’t a bad idea.

  2. Mike

    What happens when the court declares the democratic term limits and ethics code unconstitutional infringement on a co-equal branch of government?

  3. dad29

    Owen, my friend: did you create JonnyV’s persona and post with it just to show us that you could do it? That you’re the ‘net version of Jekyll and Hyde??

  4. Merlin

    -WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is seriously considering proposals to establish term limits for U.S. Supreme Court justices, and an ethics code that would be enforceable under law amid growing concerns that the justices are not held accountable, according to three people briefed on the plans.

    Let’s be honest here. Joe Biden can no longer consider anything for more than a couple of minutes at a time. The marionette committee seems to have overlooked Biden’s past statements on the subject indicating he has never favored such proposals. In a strictly practical sense these proposals were dead before the ink even dried on them. So why such a transparent display of puppetry?

  5. jonnyv

    Dad29, you can try and mock me, but you have yet to dispel what I have said in either of the last 2 posts. Owen has made assumptions (to put it kindly) or just flat out lied about the articles he has posted.

    It is possible that it ends up being part of the proposal, but that is not ANYWHERE in the reporting yet, and Owen has chosen to just make shit up.

    I personally wouldn’t be opposed to adding more judges to match the number of districts (13), but it would be a slow roll out. Add an additional court judge every 4 years for the next few administrations. Or to keep the odd numbers, you go 2 with the next president and then 2 more in 4 years. But Owen is right with one thing, it won’t get out of congress. I would rather see a much tighter adherence to an ethics code than expanding the courts.

  6. Mar

    Obviously, Jonny, you are one those think the Constitution is a suggestion rather than law.
    And Jonny, who set up the ethics code? And then enforce it?

  7. Tuerqas

    >And Jonny, who set up the ethics code? And then enforce it?

    Obviously Mar that would be a new bureau set up by Dems and given tenure so it stays liberal forever. Duh-doi!

  8. jonnyv

    No Mar, the Constitution is a living document. With the ability to be molded and changed as our society changes. It should be difficult to change, but not impossible. The SCOTUS has been different numbers in the past. There is no reason it couldn’t be adjusted in the future. But the constitution doesn’t designate the number of judges. Historically they have added justices when the circuit court expanded. It wasn’t until after the Civil War that they set the number at 9. I don’t personally think we need to increase it, but I wouldn’t be opposed to it.

    Who sets up the ethics code? I think it is done in conjunction with the SCOTUS and congress. It should be enforced by Congress as well if that code is broken. IMO not only should there be HARD limits on gifts, but also better disclosures. Because let’s be totally honest. Clarence Thomas has absolutely pushed the boundaries of his gifts and disclosures enough to partially cause people to have the lowest trust rating for SCOTUS in recent history based on recent polls.

  9. jonnyv

    Although this would NEVER fly, I think it could be interesting to see a scenario where if a SC Justice recuses themself, they get to pick a backup judge from a lower court to step in. Think of it like a pinch hitter. Right now there is too much political pressure and probably pressured responsibility for them NOT to recuse themselves when there could be a conflict of interest.

    And currently judges have no obligations to recuse themselves even if there is a conflict. I think that it could be up to the court itself to have a judge recuse. Make it a large majority (75%??) that can force a judge to recuse themselves (where then they get to call on a lower court judge to fill their position).

    I think changes like this could improve the court’s public perception without causing big shifts in the makeup of the court. But, I wouldn’t hold my breath for any of this to change.

  10. Merlin

    People sure love to offer solutions to problems they can’t even identify. Why on earth would you want the politically-purposed and perpetually ethically-challenged, professional grifters from the legislative and executive branches imposing an ethics code on the Supremes?

    The Court’s ethics are not the problem. The Court’s insistence that the other two co-equal branches stay in their own constitutionally designated lanes is also not the problem. If Congress did its job the other two branches would be much less inclined to offer remedies by either judicial fiat, executive order, or administrative regulation. The Court isn’t what’s broken.

  11. jonnyv

    Merlin, I didn’t say the court was broken. But it also doesn’t hurt to make sure that we have guard-rails for judges, regardless of who they are. Maybe give them a pay increase and don’t allow them to write books for millions of dollars while in office?

    And yes, Congress is broken. They all generally suck at doing their job. But, they are already the ones that have the power to impeach a SC justice. I don’t see an issue with them also being able to oversee any ethics complaints as well.

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