WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Joe Biden has called for a set of sweeping reforms of the US Supreme Court, including a reversal of its recent decision granting immunity to presidents from prosecution over crimes committed while in office.
Speaking at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act, Biden said he is proposing a new constitutional amendment that makes clear no President is above the law or immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.
'No other former president has asked for this kind of immunity and none should have been given it,' Biden said in apparent reference to a recent court ruling in Trump vs. United States, which gives broad immunity from later prosecution for a president exercising his authority in his official capacity. 'The president must be accountable to the law . We are a nation of laws, not kings and dictators.'
The 'No One Is Above the Law Amendment', as proposed by Biden, 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.
A constitutional amendment is possible only if two-thirds of both the houses of US Congress pass it, and ratified by three-quarters of the state governments.
Biden called for term limits for Supreme Court Justices.
Congress approved term limits for the Presidency more than 75 years ago, and 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.
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.
He also called for a binding Code of Conduct for the Supreme Court. According to his proposal, Congress should pass 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.
Biden thanked the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court for its 'insightful analysis' of Supreme Court reform proposals.
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