Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) answers questions during Senate Republicans’ weekly press conference outside the Senate chamber, Washington, DC, July 30, 2024. Their remarks focused on the border and President Joe Biden’s recent proposals for reforming the Supreme Court. (Photo by Allison Bailey / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by ALLISON BAILEY/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
OAN Staff Abril Elfi
10:38 AM – Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell stated that President Joe Biden’s recent reform proposals for the U.S. Supreme Court are “unconstitutional” and will be “dead on arrival” in Congress.
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On Tuesday, McConnell (R-Ky.) said that he was surprised by Biden’s proposal to authorize presidents to appoint justices every two years, limiting them to 18 years in active service.
A code of ethics for the court’s justices, term limits of 18 years, and ratification of a constitutional amendment limiting presidential immunity are all included in the proposal.
“I couldn’t be more disappointed. This is a man who was chairman of the Judiciary Committee for a long time. He absolutely knows what he recommended is unconstitutional, to try to limit the terms of the Supreme Court justices who under the Constitution are appointed for life,” McConnell asserted. “That shows you the depth to which they have gone lately to attack the Supreme Court because they don’t like the current makeup of the court and decisions they disapprove of.”
“The way to change” the makeup of the court “is to win the presidency and the Senate and appoint people that you like, but not to try to break — break — the Supreme Court,” McConnell continued. “This is a level that I think is just simply unacceptable.”
“I know he knows better, and such a proposal would be dead on arrival in Congress,” he added.
In an attempt to condemn and call out his former opposition, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, Biden also called for a constitutional amendment so that no former president could have immunity for “crimes that were committed while they were in office.”
In a Washington Post op-ed, the 46th president cited the Supreme Court’s recent 6-3 decision that grants presidents broad immunity from prosecution for crimes committed as official acts, as well as the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Biden continued, noting that he served as a senator for 36 years as well as chair and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, which was McConnell’s argument of why it confused him that Biden was seemingly unaware of how the system works.
“I have great respect for our institutions and separation of powers,” Biden wrote. “What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms.”
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) declared that the court is in a “morass” due to recent allegations of “unethical conduct” by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. However, he has declined to say whether he would bring Biden’s proposed reforms up for a vote in the Senate.
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