Leonard Leo says Biden’s Supreme Court reforms should apply to Congress too

Leonard Leo, the conservative co-chairman of the Federalist Society legal group, argued Monday that President Joe Biden‘s sweeping plans to reform the Supreme Court should extend to where the “real corruption” lies — within the halls of Congress.

Biden’s proposal on Monday called for limiting Supreme Court justices’ terms to a maximum of 18 years rather than a lifetime appointment, creating a mechanism for holding the justices accountable to ethics standards, and ratifying a constitutional amendment to remove immunity for crimes committed by a president in office. Leo, who held a key role in helping former President Donald Trump choose three justices to the high court, said the reforms were more about “Democrats destroying a court they don’t agree with.”

In a statement, Leo said if Biden and Democrats were “truly serious” about ethics reform, they would call for bans on “all gifts and hospitality of any kind to any public official in any branch of government,” including Congress, where he said “the real corruption is.”

“Let me be clear: If Democrats want to adopt an across the board ethics ban for all branches, I am in favor of that: no jets, no meals, no speaking honorariums, no gifts for anyone from anyone for any reason in any branch, starting with Congress. Until they support that, let’s all be honest about what this is: a campaign to destroy a court that they disagree with,” Leo said in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner.

Under current rules for both members of Congress and the federal judiciary, lawmakers and judges are allowed to receive gifts but must report them on their financial disclosures. The federal judiciary last year adopted other changes to its disclosure rules to clarify that judges must disclose stays at commercial properties, such as hotels and resorts, and gifts of hospitality paid for by an entity or third party other than the person providing it.

Leo was one of two targets of Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee last year in their investigations into the lavish gifts that have been bestowed to conservative justices in recent years.

The Federalist Society co-chairman has vowed against complying with any subpoenas by the committee, suggesting they are unlawful. Meanwhile, wealthy real estate mogul and Republican donor Harlan Crow, who has taken Justice Clarence Thomas on several vacations across the world in years past, agreed to comply with a subpoena last month in exchange for his investigation being dropped.

ProPublica also reported in June 2023 that Leo “helped organize” an Alaskan fishing trip with Justice Samuel Alito and billionaire Paul Singer, noting that “Singer and the lodge owner were both major donors to Leo’s political groups.”

Despite the rigorous efforts by Democrats to lodge complaints and inquiries into conservative justices such as Thomas and Alito, there has been no proof to date that their decisions were influenced by other people or outside organizations.

“No conservative justice has made any decision in any big case that surprised anyone, so let’s stop pretending this is about undue influence,” Leo said.

Legal and political experts say Biden’s plans to reform the judiciary are highly unlikely to succeed, given that the Republican-controlled House overwhelmingly disagrees with any proposed legislative efforts floated by Biden and the two-thirds majority needed to pass a constitutional amendment for term limits.

Nevertheless, Democrats such as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) applauded Biden’s announcement.

“I will continue my 12-year effort until it’s done, because the highest court in the land cannot have the lowest ethical standards,” Durbin said in an X post.

Biden is expected to make his first comments on the reform plans on Monday afternoon during a planned address at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.