After recent rulings by the Supreme Court favored Conservative views commonly held by the Republican party, Democratic lawmakers are pushing for justices to have term limits.
After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s plan for student loan forgiveness and ended affirmative action for college admissions, Democrats began complaining that the lack of term limits for Supreme Court justices is unfair.
On Monday, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.) announced the reintroduction of a bill called the Supreme Court Term Limits and Regular Appointments Act which they claimed will “rebalance” the court and “stop extreme partisanship.”
“The Supreme Court’s decision to block student debt relief will put many hardworking Americans at risk of default and will be a disaster for our economy,” said Khanna.
“Our Founding Fathers intended for lifetime appointments to ensure impartiality,” the California Rep. added. “The decision today demonstrates how justices have become partisan and out of step with the American public.”
“I’m proud to reintroduce The Supreme Court Term Limits and Regular Appointments Act to implement term limits to rebalance the court and stop extreme partisanship.”
In an interview with The Guardian, Khanna blasted the Supreme Court as “out of touch,” saying, “It’s a court that is regressive, that is rolling back women’s rights, rolling back rights about racial equality, rolling back environmental protections, rolling back now assistance for young people.”
Rep. Beyer echoed Khanna’s contention that SCOTUS is too politically biased.
“For many Americans, the Supreme Court is a distant, secretive, unelected body that can make drastic changes in their lives without any accountability,” said Beyer. “Recent partisan decisions by the Supreme Court that destroyed historic protections for reproductive rights, voting rights and more have undermined public trust in the Court – even as inappropriate financial relationships between justices and conservative donors raised new questions about its integrity.”
Joe Biden has also been a major critic of the Supreme Court and its recent rulings. During an interview on MSNBC, Biden was asked whether he was concerned that “without court reform, this conservative majority is too young and too conservative, that they might do too much harm?”
“Well, I think they may do too much harm, but I think if we start the process of trying to expand the court, we’re going to politicize it maybe forever in a way that is not healthy, that you can’t get back,” Biden said.
