Watch Live: Biden touts Supreme Court reform proposals at LBJ Library in Texas
President Biden is delivering his long-awaited proposal to reform the Supreme Court on Monday at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas, where he is laying out changes that are highly unlikely to earn congressional approval in the near future.
Mr. Biden, who last week handed his presidential campaign over to Vice President Kamala Harris, is detailing the reforms at an event marking the 60th anniversary of passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the landmark legislation that Johnson shepherded through Congress and signed into law. Four years later, Johnson declined to run for reelection, a precursor to Mr. Biden's choice to step aside earlier this month.
The speech is Mr. Biden's first public event since he explained his decision to drop out of the race in an Oval Office address last week.
The White House on Monday laid out the framework of the Supreme Court proposal. The most significant change would impose 18-year term limits for justices. The proposal also calls for a binding ethics code for the justices and a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity, after the Supreme Court ruled Donald Trump has immunity for official acts he took as president.
The proposal for a binding ethics code comes after revelations that Justice Clarence Thomas accepted flights and travel accommodations from a Republican megadonor, trips he did not formally disclose until recently.
Mr. Biden's proposal to overhaul the Supreme Court, which critics say would violate the separation of powers, isn't likely to go far in Congress. Republicans control the House, and Democrats only have a very narrow margin in the Senate. House Speaker Mike Johnson said it was "dead on arrival" in the lower chamber.
When Mr. Biden landed in Texas, a reporter asked him what he made of Johnson's comment.
"I think that's what he is," Mr. Biden said. "He is — dead on arrival."
Pressed further, Mr. Biden said he's "going to figure a way" to pass the proposal.
But Democrats in Congress aren't optimistic, either. Sen. Dick Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the president's proposals a "remote possibility."
"It used to be that we dealt with ethics on a bipartisan basis, but the Republicans are not participating in it now," Durbin told reporters Monday.
The proposal could, however, fire up Democrats and liberals to get out and vote for Harris. She has 99 days to prove to the country that she, not Trump, should sit in the Oval Office.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority has issued opinions the last two years that have riled Democrats and liberals, most notably in the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the issue of abortion to the states.
