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.
Biden will make the announcement in Texas on Monday
Just twisting that knife in the wound. I love it.
I’m here for it too! As long as he doesn’t do it from an open car in Dallas…
Not to be morbid, but that’s what got Johnson elected the next year, so…
What wound?
You don’t think proposing SCOTUS reform is going to help Republicans, do you?
Right, but the phrase implies this is just taking something that is already hurting them and making it worse.
Yes. By announcing it in Texas.
Can’t speak for ripcord, but the part I am unclear on is why Texas specifically is relevant. Is the supreme court based in Texas? I am not American.
The 5th federal court district is in Texas and is notorious. Most recently they did some shenanigans to keep the federal government from enforcing it’s borders because Texas was playing politics with their troops and occupying federal land to put Razer wire in the border river.
I’m from the US and I’m not following, either.
The Supreme Court meets across the country in Washington DC, so it’s not for that reason.
Well, no, but there’s a big gap between “not helping” and “wounding”, and this is much, much closer to the “not helping” end of that gap.
It’s an expression. Why do so many people around here take everything literally?
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.
If he flexs his newfound immunity he could definitely stir the pot.
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.
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.
He must use the stones to destroy the stones
Imagine if he straight up held the court hostage. “Every week that you don’t rule to restrict presidential immunity I kill another justice as an official act.”
“Two things actually - you gotta do that and restore Roe. Fuck it, three things - you gotta restore the Voting Rights Act too.”
“Shit. Four things. Citizens United. Reverse it. Yeah do all that or I’ll keep killing and replacing justices until you do. Officially.”
Oh, and Chevron
No way that majority exists, but the tv ads will be delicious and brutal
…and 3/4 of the states. Not only will it take years to accomplish, the uneducated people of the country won’t stand for any amendment that a “librul” came up with. And then everyone will forget or stop caring.
There won’t be another amendment in the next fifty years, as long as MAGA morons exist.
This requirement is what stalls almost all constitutional changes. The last three to pass were 25th 1971 about voting rights for 18 year olds (100 days to pass) the 26th in 1967 about presidential succession (just under 3 years to pass) The last last one (27th) was added 1992 after almost 203 years of meeting the other requirements (It has to do with sitting Congress not being able to raise their own salaries, increases are delayed to the next term. )
There are 6 amendments still sitting out there awaiting ratification by the states.
That’s some excellent history. Thanks for sharing.
Expecting the GOP to cooperate on anything ever is a bit of a pipe dream
His first year:
- The American Rescue Plan Act and extending existing Covid-19 programs
- Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
- Bills to avoid a government shutdown and keep the federal government running
- Juneteenth National Independence Day Act
- Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act
I mean the critique behind “why didn’t he do it when he had the majority” still applies: calling for a constitutional amendment is ineffectual. There’s no way a constitutional amendment is going to happen in today’s political environment.
Also the court reform he’s proposing isn’t a constitutional amendment, but since he waited until he didn’t have a majority, that can’t happen either.
It’s almost like he doesn’t want change.
Had he done that, it would have been before this blatant level of corruption had surfaced. So it would have been met with with “there is no evidence to merit something this drastic”.
Manchin and Sinema would have blocked it. Our “majority” in the Senate existed only for legislation those two DINOs would allow.
To be clear, this immunity obviously DOES NOT EXIST in the constitution and was invented out of whole cloth.
It’s not like the constitution is some infallible magic text, it was also “invented” by some dudes.
It was also, at least according to Jefferson, intended to be replaced on a regular basis to better reflect the needs of the country.
Jefferson did write he wanted it remade every ~20 years. But that was a personal belief of his not the general understanding when the constitution was adopted.
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.
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.
That’s true, but I don’t think it invalidates anything about the post you replied to. It’s not a question of who invented what. The case is that the job of the founders WAS to invent the constitution and the structure of the government and all that.
The second group’s job is to read what they wrote and follow it. And sometimes there’s wiggle room in interpretation and settling that is their job too. But they don’t get to make up new laws and amendments just because the result of doing so is desirable for them.
The way they interpreted it was invented, but there was precedent in the constitution
There’s also the question of how a law that would criminalize an enumerated power could be constitutional as applied as. That’d be voiding the Constitution by statute rather than amendment.
Which would require the president to sign off on but could be weaponized against an incoming president if one party has the legislature and executive.
Now that he doesn’t have to worry about getting reelected, he doesn’t have to pussyfoot around anymore.
What if we just made the limit 1 term? Then no presidents would be doing actions purely to get reelected?
It’s helpful not totally replace the executive branch every four years if you don’t have to
Well, they still represent their party, so their actions could still affect an election. An embarrassing lame duck session would screw the next party nominee.
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??
Thomas is still there because taking Bribes and Gifts from Billionaires who have Cases before you is FINE! The REAL Corruption is Judge MERCHAN’S DAUGHTER who DONATED some Money once to DEMOCRATS!
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.
Mexico does that! It doesn’t look super common but it’s a thing.
Mexico is in a very different situation regarding the size and complexity of their administrative state. They’re also facing an entirely different type of corruption and political violence than we have up here…
Yeah! Every place I saw that did it seemed quite different from the US. I just thought it was neat that there are places trying this.
Can’t wait for him to flip the table on Israel
any second now…
aaaaaaaaannny second now…
Why would he do that before the election? It’s still the same party, and him doing that would do nothing but hurt Kamala at this point. The smart move is to walk the tightrope for a few more months.
Yeah I get it, it sucks that American politicians can’t just say certain things without tanking their career and destroying their political future. It’s fucked up and gross, but it’s real.
A lot of people are talking like this is a done deal, but I’ve seen enough elections at this point to know that a million impossible to predict things can (and likely will) happen between now and November.
As much as you might want the Democratic party to shout support for Palestinians from the rooftops, the current reality is that we need to continue to be very careful. If you actually care about Palestinian lives beyond using them as political pawns, then unfortunately we need to play the game until November.
Because the alternative is an unacceptable outcome for the Palestinian people.
I’ll probably get downvoted for saying it, but it doesn’t make it less true: Harris could behave exactly the same toward Israel as Biden, after being elected, and she would still be the only choice this election.
I know there are plenty of genuine people here, but so much of the “genocide Joe” rhetoric was such obvious astroturfing. Or at least began that way…
But we live in a world of cause and effect. Regardless of what happens between now and then there are a few possible outcomes for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. But objectively, by a long shot, the worst is if Donald Trump and the GOP (with the hands of the Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation, John Birch Society, probably several lame clubs named after Ayn Rand bullshit, firmly up its keister like a goddam Muppet) take the presidency and immediately give Netanyahu carte blanche to “do what needs to be done” there. Which is what he/they will do.
If you think things are bad now, a Trump win would be signing the death warrant for the Palestinian people in the Levant. And every so-called “progressive” that stayed home because of Biden’s stances on Israel will have the blood of millions of dead Palestinians on their hands.
I consider myself to be a progressive, but the complete lack of pragmatism I’ve seen from other so-called progressives lately has been atrocious. So I hope it was mostly astroturf.
Preach
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.
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).
I just remembered the stupid “pizza is a vegetable” bullshit
I think you’re thinking of Reagan’s “ketchup is a vegetable” bullshit.
Was referring to this specifically: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/pizza-vegetable-congress-says-yes-flna1c9453097
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.
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.
Not entirely sure that matters here.
I really don’t think there’s that many people towards the middle or left of the political spectrum that are going to be upset about this if he gets the changes through.
Besides, any changes that might bother voters will still have an effect on Kamala’s campaign until the elections over in November.
The problem is not presidential immunity. The problem is immunity and the president is just the highest profile job that has it. Politicians never do anything about the root cause, and only treat the symptoms.
Police officers get away with murder because their job gives them immunity. Ceos, shareholders and other corporate staff have immunity as well.
A president getting away with assassinating a political rival is just as unjust as letting a ceo get away with killing 346 people simply because their job gives them immunity for their actions.
Perfect should not be the enemy of Good. Reforming the entire system is not something that just happens. It takes several steps in the right direction and you have to start somewhere.
The entire system is beyond antiquated. Coupled with bureaucratic tendency to be self serving, leads me to believe “reformation” will look more like slow death, and further declining services.
I see no reason for optimism along the lines of “system reform”, and history has no examples I can think of. Shit just gets worse and worse till people start killing people and try some new systems.
Suffrage didn’t require violent overthrow of the entire system, neither did the New Deal, neither did the Civil Rights movement, neither did Medicare, neither did Gay Rights. No nothing is “solved”, but everything is better than it was in 1900.
“IDK, maybe War will fix it” is far more unhelpful than working to make positive changes.
Ah, yes. The famously incrementalist New Deal and Medicare. The Civil Rights Movement? Incrementalism is setting a timetable for another man’s freedom. We only got gay marriage because the courts did what the legislature was too incrementalist to feel like doing.
Sufferage, civil rights etc aren’t institutions.
'idk, war will fix it" is a lazy-ass takeaway, but ok.
You’re right, they’re fundamental changes across multiple institutions.
“I can’t think of examples” is a pretty lazy justification for “the only way out is violence”.
The supreme court created both of those immunities as well.
Get ‘em Dark Brandon!
Cool, next do the circuit courts! Especially the 5th!
It appears he’s pushing to add official ethics guidelines, not pack the court or anything that would radically change the fuckpit we’ve got now.
Public confidence in the court has slipped sharply in recent years.
lol
We about to see the real Dark Brandon.
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?
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.
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.
Sounds like an official act to me! Let’s do some more.
I think he should hire 15 more supreme Court justices. All 18 years old If they want to fuck around with our country we can too. Maybe that would lead to actual change in the rules surrounding supreme Court
Please please please please
… And add another 4 justices, right?
The Democratic Party when the corrupt court just calls their reform unconstitutional: 🤷♂️
Four isn’t enough, the other side can just eventually add six more. He should directly add a hundred and fifty thousand more.
Make every American a member of the supreme Court and cases are decided by a popular vote
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.
They should have been going low from the beginning. Nice guys finish last.
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.
