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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Joe Biden’s proposed reforms for the U.S. Supreme Court are such non-starters, I’m surprised they got so much media coverage. The changes require an amendment to the Constitution and congressional action. Neither will happen. The reforms are hardly worth the ink the newspapers wasted on covering them.
The bigger story, how Joe Biden made the announcement, was ignored.
The proposals are: undoing the court’s ruling on expanded Presidential immunity. That would require a change to the Constitution. The others, a new code of ethics that would extend to the spouses of the justices. That makes the incorrect assumption that husbands and wives agree on the political issues of the day. If only. And lastly, term limits of 18 years of justices. The change would assure that each President gets to make at least two appointments to the court. Democrats are still frosted from the 2016 election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Voters knew there was an open seat on the court, and chose Trump to fill it.
None of those bad ideas will be happening.
What’s been missed? Joe Biden released his court reform proposal as a written statement to the Washington Post. He did not appear in front of the White House press corps to talk about it, although he did give a teleprompter speech in Texas that night. Why surrender hours of the news cycle? That’s because Joe Biden knows that every appearance in public where he looks tired, has trouble getting his words out, or, God forbid, has to answer reporters’ questions – well, that becomes to story. It leads to more difficult questions for Kamala Harris, like “is the President capable of serving?” or “how far gone does he have to be until you invoke the 25th amendment?”
This week’s Supreme Court reforms will be the new normal: politically charges ideas that are going nowhere, delivered in a way that shield Joe Biden’s deteriorating condition from the public.
Chris Conley
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