How Biden’s Supreme Court reform push might play on the campaign trail

President Joe Biden‘s trio of proposed changes to the Supreme Court stand next to no chance of becoming law. That doesn’t mean they can’t be useful for Democrats.

“In recent years, extreme opinions at the Supreme Court has handed down have undermined long-established civli rights principles and protections,” Biden said Monday in Austin, Texas. “In 2022 the court overruled Roe v. Wade and the right to choose. It had been the law of the land for 50 years. The following year the same court eviscerated affirmative action, which had been upheld or reaffirmed for nearly 50 years as well. And now there’s an extreme movement and agenda called Project 2025.”

While House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Biden’s proposals are “dead on arrival” in Congress, Biden shot back during his remarks that, “I think his thinking is dead on arrival,” exposing the political nature of the move.

Biden’s proposals are unlikely to pass by the end of his term in office next January. His idea to curtail presidential immunity, made following a recent case in which Trump was involved, would require a constitutional amendment to become law. That would mean passage by two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and three-quarters of state legislatures, which effectively means it will be impossible given Republican opposition.

Biden’s other two proposals, 18-year term limits for justices and a binding Supreme Court ethics code, could pass via the regular procedures of Congress, though Johnson has already vowed that they will not pass.

Even so, Biden’s message can prove useful for Democrats on the campaign trail.

“The Supreme Court initiative is all about abortion,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said. “The best way for Democrats to use this is to remind voters that Trump picked three Supreme Court justices who made it possible to deny women reproductive rights.”

Such a message is especially powerful now for two reasons, Bannon added.

One reason is that most voters do not care about procedural details of Supreme Court justice selection and tenure, but they do care when it is tied to hot-button issues like abortion. The second reason is that new Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has proven an effective campaigner on the abortion issue.

Harris quickly jumped on board to back Biden’s effort Monday morning.

“President Biden and I strongly believe that the American people must have confidence in the Supreme Court,” she wrote. “Yet today, there is a clear crisis of confidence facing the Supreme Court as its fairness has been called into question after numerous ethics scandals and decision after decision overturning long-standing precedent.”

Harris’s statement specifically referenced the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, about which she has been campaigning heavily since the midterm elections in 2022.

Nearly 72% of registered voters believe that the politicization of the Supreme Court threatens judicial independence and 69% do not want Congress “taking over and setting rules for judicial ethics,” according to a poll from First Liberty Institute, which interviewed 1,100 voters.

However, abortion is the top subject for 1-in-8 voters in the 2024 election, according to a March poll from the healthcare policy think tank KFF. Many of those who feel strongly about the topic feel that abortion should be legal in all cases.

Democratic senators were quick to back Biden as well, describing the reforms as needed to restore trust.

“The rule of law is what separates democracy from other forms of government,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) said. “The proposals endorsed by the president today will strengthen the rule of law, and Americans’ faith in our democracy. I look forward to working with the president and my colleagues in Congress to pass this vitally important package into law.”

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) was even more direct in invoking electoral consequences, saying, “Donald Trump and his MAGA partners in the Republican caucus stole two seats and packed the court with partisan justices who are overturning decades of precedent to satisfy their deep-pocketed, right-wing, special interest benefactors.”

Republicans did not entertain the proposals, dismissing them as an overtly partisan exercise that undermines rather than restores the court’s role in the workings of government.

“The Supreme Court is under attack,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters Monday. “Prominent democrats say it must do what they want, and not what the laws and constitution require.”

National Review columnist Dan McLaughlin went even further, calling the proposal the “January 6 for the court system.”

But Republican strategist John Feehery had the opposite take on Biden’s proposal, saying the GOP is better to simply leave it alone.

“Ignore it,” he said. “Lame idea from a lame-duck president.”

Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this story