Member-only story
Reform This!
A closer look at Biden’s July 29 proposals for Supreme Court reform, and what is missing.
From a political perspective, President Biden’s Supreme Court reforms make no sense. (1) Biden is not alone. Since President Biden has been in office and since the public release of a Presidential Commission to Reform the Supreme Court (2021), Congress has approached the issue of Supreme Court reform with a broadside of fixit proposals. (2) They are more the stuff of a campaign stump speech than serious reform. Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris’s endorsement of Biden’s attempts at court reform doesn’t make them any better. During her campaign speech in Atlanta on July 30, Harris cited the court reform proposals as a crowd pleaser and cheer prompt, then moved on.
What’s wrong with this picture?
First, what was President Biden thinking, pitching to a divided Congress? Is there hope of passing the 2/3 Senate filibuster juggernaut, or a 3/4 state mandate required of a Constitutional amendment? (3) By presuming “dead upon arrival,” doesn’t assure voters that the reforms are any more than a political stunt.
Second, Biden’s reforms do not deal with the current sitting justices, which a healthy slice of Americans find as root cause for the increasing disapproval of the Court.
