Constitutional expert: Biden Supreme Court reforms as 'not what founders would want'

By Jen Krausz on
 August 5, 2024

Constitutional expert David Shestokas said there is no need for President Joe Biden's suggested Supreme Court reforms because the Constitution already provides a process for dealing with unethical behavior.

“The impeachment clause says, ‘if somebody is impeached and then removed from office, then they can be prosecuted,’” Shestokas said. “Senator Durbin can have at it and ask the Illinois delegation, which is dominated by his colleagues, to introduce articles of impeachment against Justice Thomas.”

Shestokas said that Durbin's insistence that the recent SCOTUS ruling giving former presidents broad immunity for official acts needs to be remedied is incorrect.

The founding fathers intended for presidents to be able to make decisions without fearing that subsequent administrations would come after them criminally, Shestokas said.

Presidents might not make decisions in the best interest of the country if they thought they might be prosecuted later, he added.

The other thing Biden and Democrats want to do is implement term limits for the high court's justices, but Shestokas said this is also unconstitutional because the founding fathers felt that serving until they decided to step down would make justices immune to politics in a way that any other arrangement would not.