US president also to seek constitutional amendment to limit immunity for presidents and various officeholders

Joe Biden will announce plans to reform the US supreme court on Monday, Politico reported, citing two people familiar with the matter, adding that the US president was likely to back term limits for justices and an enforceable code of ethics.

Biden said earlier this week during an Oval Office address that he would call for reform of the court.

He is also expected to seek a constitutional amendment to limit immunity for presidents and some other officeholders, Politico reported, in the aftermath of a July supreme court ruling that presidents have broad immunity from prosecution.

Biden will make the announcement in Texas on Monday and the specific proposals could change, the report added.

    • 4lan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      2 months ago

      What if we just made the limit 1 term? Then no presidents would be doing actions purely to get reelected?

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        Would be so much worse… Think about any type of project or policy that takes more than 4 years to complete (and longer to see tangible benefits from).

        It’s already bad enough having a GOP president come in every 8 years to undo most of the good things their Democratic predecessor accomplished (with Reagan removing Carter’s solar panels from the White House roof being the archetype).

        Imagine having that pendulum swing every 4 years. Literally nothing that takes longer than 4 years would ever get done.

      • _bcron@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        2 months ago

        I think the problem with that would be that every 4-12 years we’d have a lame duck supreme court playing tug of war with the last supreme court over a handful of issues.

        What we really need is to be able to easily oust justices for ethics violations and conflicts of interest, like what the hell is Thomas still doing there??

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      2 months ago

      He is also expected to seek a constitutional amendment

      Arguably, this is still pussyfooting since there’s no fucking way he has anything near the number of votes needed for this.

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        Whenever I see a politician mention anything about a constitutional amendment, I immediately stop reading.

        Shit ain’t happening… We wouldn’t be able to pass an amendment saying “Pizza is yummy” because Republicans would refuse to agree with Democrats. They would actually stop eating pizza altogether because of it. There would be a movement to outlaw pizza because it’s grooming our kids (stupid sexy pizza).

        I was trying to think of something silly and outlandish, and as I was typing this, I realized… This isn’t even that far out of the realm of possibility at this point. It’s like legitimately difficult to think of something too far-fetched for this reality. It wouldn’t be the first pizza-related issue on the right (ahem, Pizzagate?). Or the second (I just remembered the stupid “pizza is a vegetable” bullshit).

        The looking glass ain’t shit, we went through it years ago. We’re at the end of “2001: A Space Odyssey” with Pink Floyd’s Echoes playing in sync with it. If we’re lucky, we’ll soon make it through the psychedelic spaghettification, and we will get to watch ourselves as a boring old man before becoming a giant space fetus…

        Sorry, got kind of sidetracked there what were we talking about again?

        Oh yeah, Jupiter and beyond the infinite…

        (Spoiler alert? Lol I couldn’t spoil the end of that film if I tried).

        • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          2 months ago

          I just remembered the stupid “pizza is a vegetable” bullshit

          I think you’re thinking of Reagan’s “ketchup is a vegetable” bullshit.

            • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              2 months ago

              The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now.

              TBF that’s not even as bad as Reagan’s “ketchup is a vegetable”. Canning is a totally legitimate way of preserving tomatoes at their peak of ripeness with their nutritional qualities intact (many chefs even prefer canned tomatoes to fresh ones) and paste/sauce is just the ground-up version of that. Ketchup is that plus a shit ton of sugar and/or corn syrup.

              The amount of tomato sauce on pizza is dubiously small, however.

              • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                2 months ago

                It was more about the conservative reaction to the situation. Because it was during Obama tenure, and Michelle had the gall to get all uppity and try to make kids more healthy.

    • dropped_the_chief@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      What’s he going to do? Remove kingly immunity from the presidency? Or how about use the senate to keep republicans from getting supreme Court nominees from even getting a hearing?

      • Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 months ago

        You push an ethics review of the seating court. Make a solid case to impeach them if they did wrong. If you win the house and Senate with a majority then, you remove those that are extremely corrupt.

        Install term limits on the court as well. You correct the wrongs the Republicans have built in the last 20-30 years.

        • BluescreenOfDeath@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 months ago

          If you win the house and Senate with a majority then, you remove those that are extremely corrupt.

          Democrats would need a supermajority in the Senate to achieve that. Anything less than 2/3rds and nobody gets removed.

  • oyo@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    2 months ago

    To be clear, this immunity obviously DOES NOT EXIST in the constitution and was invented out of whole cloth.

    • wischi@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      2 months ago

      It’s not like the constitution is some infallible magic text, it was also “invented” by some dudes.

      • Taako_Tuesday@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        It was also, at least according to Jefferson, intended to be replaced on a regular basis to better reflect the needs of the country.

      • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        While technically true, countries with a proper constitution that is upheld by the judiciary, legislative and executive branch of government tend to be much more stable.

        It is good to amend the constitution if necessary, but the principle of there being a constitution and it being followed, is a very important thing for democracy.

        • wischi@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          I guess that’s true and I certainly don’t have anything against the concept of a constitution, but as someone not living in the US I find it pretty strange that so many Americans treat the constitution like some holy religious text.

  • dropped_the_chief@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    2 months ago

    When the republican senate started weighing how to get their way through the supreme court, during the Obama administration, don’t sound so surprised the Democrats aren’t forced to go low too.

  • Atom@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    2 months ago

    InB4 “WhY DiDn’t hE Do iT WhEn hE HaD ThE MaJoRiTy?” Because he’s calling for constitutional amendments that require a 2/3rds support in Congress and the SCOTUS may finally be disliked enough to get some GOP members to support reform, especially if it comes with limiting Biden’s own immunity.

      • alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        2 months ago

        If he goes full Dark Brandon with his immunity, perhaps in his lame duck period, then that would be epic.

        I got the popcorn ready.

        • KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things.

          Removing threats to democracy because that democracy is so flawed that it gave you the power to do so legally, and then using that power to eliminate the ability for it to be used again, is heroic.

  • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    I’m glad he’s not running anymore, because I don’t have to watch his supporters add “Reformed the Supreme Court” to the list of proposals they count as completed accomplishments.