Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch issued a stern warning to Joe Biden after the president recently proposed sweeping reforms to the nation’s high court.
Last week, Biden called for sweeping reforms to the Supreme Court, including term limits, a binding code of conduct for the nine justices and a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity.
In an interview promoting his new book, Gorsuch urged the president to be careful in how he proceeds, saying the judiciary must provide an independent check on Biden’s office.
“It’s there for those times when the spotlight is on you, when the government is after you. And don’t you want a brutally independent judge and a jury of your peers making those decisions? Isn’t that your right as an American?” Gorsuch asked.
The judge appointed by Donald Trump added: “So I’m just saying, be careful.”
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch sent a stern warning to Joe Biden after the president recently proposed extreme reforms to the nation’s highest court
Gorsuch, who is part of the Republican majority on the Supreme Court (6-3 vote), has also expressed concern that Americans do not value what the court represents.
“I’m not saying there aren’t ways to improve what we have. I’m just saying we’ve been given something very special. It’s the envy of the world, the American judiciary,” he said.
Gorsuch is currently promoting his new book, Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law.
“Too little law and we’re not safe, and our freedoms aren’t protected. But too much law and you harm those same things.”
The 56-year-old judge was the first of three Trump Supreme Court nominees, and they have worked together to solidify a conservative majority that has overturned Roe v. Wade, ended affirmative action in college admissions, expanded gun rights and rolled back environmental regulations targeting climate change as well as air and water pollution more generally.
Biden cited “recent ethics scandals” involving Supreme Court justices and rulings that “overturned long-standing legal precedents protecting fundamental rights.” He called on Congress to enact three key reforms in an effort to “restore trust and accountability” in America’s democratic institutions.
The White House last week detailed Biden’s court proposal, noting that the Democrat believes “no one — the president and the Supreme Court — is above the law.”
The president will formally introduce the changes today during a speech in Austin, Texas, but his proposals appear have little chance of being approved by a deeply divided Congress with less than 100 days to go before Election Day.
Last week, Biden called for sweeping reforms to the Supreme Court, including term limits, a binding code of conduct for the nine justices and a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity.
In an interview promoting his new book, Gorsuch urged the president to be careful in how he proceeds, saying the judiciary must be an independent check on Biden’s office.
Carelessly, Democrats hope Biden’s proposal will help voters focus on their choices in the close presidential election.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has attempted to portray her race against former Republican President Donald Trump as “a choice between freedom and chaos.”
Biden is calling for an end to lifetime appointments to the court, saying Congress should pass legislation to set up a system in which the sitting president appoints a justice every two years who has served on the court for 18 years.
He argues that term limits would ensure that the composition of the court changes with some regularity and make the appointment process more predictable.
He also wants Congress to pass legislation establishing a code of ethics for judges, which would require judges to disclose gifts, refrain from public political activity and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their partners have financial or other conflicts of interest.
Biden has also called on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment that would reverse the Supreme Court’s recent landmark immunity ruling, which granted former presidents broad immunity from prosecution.
This comes after the Supreme Court ruled in July that Trump cannot be prosecuted for actions that fell within his constitutional powers as president, in a landmark decision that for the first time recognized some form of presidential immunity from prosecution..
The decision extended the criminal case in Washington against Trump, who was accused of trying to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election, and virtually eliminated the chances of the former president being tried before the November election.
Biden’s push for reform comes a week after Biden ended his re-election campaign and endorsed Harris to take on Republican presidential nominee Trump in November.
It also follows the Supreme Court ruling that there is no constitutional right to abortion and other decisions that blocked Biden’s agenda on immigration, student loans, vaccine mandates and climate change.
