While making structural changes to the nation’s highest court may seem unlikely during an era of hyper-partisanship and divided government, Rhode Island U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse contends that support is growing.
On Monday, President Biden used an op-ed in the Washington Post to flesh out his endorsement for imposing 18-year term limits and a binding code of ethics on Supreme Court justices. Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, also supports the change.
The changes would require Congressional approval, currently a longshot with Republicans in control of the U.S. House and able to use the filibuster in the Senate.
Biden’s proposals mirror bills introduced last year by Whitehouse, a longtime critic of U.S. Supreme Court rules.
“The topline of the story is that we’re making a lot of progress,” the senator said during a media availability at T.F. Green Airport.
The Supreme Court has gone from asserting “ethics are nobody’s business but our own,” Whitehouse said, to supporting what he called a “phony ethics code,” to one justice calling for stronger oversight, and now to Biden’s endorsement of term limits and a binding ethics code.
One related bill sponsored by Whitehouse, which would create a mechanism to investigate alleged violations of a code of conduct, cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in July and is expected to get a vote in the Senate. Whitehouse has also sponsored a term limits measure for Supreme Court justices. The latter would institute the appointment of a new justice every two years as more senior justices eventually cycle off the court.
The Supreme Court needs such measures, the Rhode Island Democrat said, “Because it is no longer implementing the law fairly — is no longer reading the Constitution honestly. It is instead doing the bidding of a small group of right-wing billionaires and their whole array of front groups that have spent over a decade capturing the court.”
Whitehouse acknowledged Democrats bear responsibility for not mustering a more effective response as Republicans shaped the conservative majority that has overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion rights case, and been buffeted by headlines about questionable ethics.
“As one of the people who made most of the warnings early on, I feel vindicated in a terrible way,” Whitehouse said, “and I wish we weren’t in the situation we’re in.”
Even if Donald Trump were to retake the White House, Whitehouse said, Democrats could make progress on structural reforms in the Supreme Court by retaking the House of Representatives.
In the House, unlike the Senate, the filibuster can not be used to effectively block bills.
“And even President Trump can’t block a House subpoena, so the most immediate angle for a very thorough and rigorous investigation is a post-November Democratic House of Representatives,” Whitehouse said.
The senator said his backing for term limits does not extend to elected officials since they are not subject to lifetime appointments.
