US President Joe Biden will call for lawmakers to pass new binding ethics rules and term limits for Supreme Court justices on Monday, as part of a sweeping proposal that would fundamentally alter the US’ top court.

The plan, which faces a difficult path in Congress, also calls for a constitutional amendment to ensure that former presidents can be tried for crimes committed while in office. Until recently, Biden had resisted calls from some Democrats to seek reforms to the High Court.

Biden plans to lay out his blueprint in a speech at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, casting it as necessary to restore accountability to both the presidency and the court, according to a White House official. The president previewed the push during a speech in the Oval Office last week.

The US was “founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law. Not the president of the US. Not a justice on the Supreme Court”, Biden plans to say in an op-ed on Monday, according to excerpts released by the official.

Democrats have increasingly called for imposing limits on the Supreme Court after an ethics scandal and politically divisive rulings, including the conservative majority overturning Roe v Wade in 2022. However, lawmakers have seldom passed judicial reform laws in recent years, and any changes would need support from the Republican-controlled House.

The constitutional amendment Biden is seeking would make clear a person who serves as president isn’t immune from any federal criminal indictment, trial or conviction, including prosecution for crimes committed while in office, according to a fact sheet the White House issued.

He will also ask Congress to approve term limits, framing it as a move to ensure changes to the court’s membership in a regular fashion and to keep any one president from having outsize influence on the court’s make-up. Such a system would see a president appoint a justice every two years to spend 18 years in active service on the court, according to the White House.

Biden’s proposal would impose term limits through legislation, though many constitutional scholars say it would take a constitutional amendment.

He will also urge lawmakers to pass enforceable rules of conduct that require justices to disclose gifts, refrain from political activity and recuse themselves from cases presenting conflicts of interest - for them or spouses. 

Although the Supreme Court adopted a code of conduct for the first time in November, that approach lacks an enforcement mechanism and continues to let individual justices decide on their own whether to recuse from cases. Justice Elena Kagan has proposed that Chief Justice John Roberts appoint a panel of judges to enforce the code of conduct.

The proposals are highly unlikely to be adopted by the current divided Congress - and a constitutional amendment would face a challenging path. The president doesn’t play any formal role in the constitutional amendment process.

Still, the plan would represent the most far-reaching overhaul of the nation’s highest court, following a term with a number of landmark decisions - including one involving Republican nominee Donald Trump that found presidents could obtain immunity for official acts.

That ruling, which affected the 2024 presidential race by complicating efforts to prosecute the former president in criminal cases, drew outrage from the left.

The court’s conservative bench, bolstered by three appointees from Trump, has delivered the right a number of major victories in recent years, including ending federal abortion protections, scrapping Biden’s broad student-debt relief plan, overturning university affirmative action programmes and sharply constraining federal agency powers to push through regulations.

The justices themselves have faced intense scrutiny. Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas has come under criticism for accepting gifts and trips from Texas billionaire Harlan Crow that he didn’t initially disclose.

Fellow conservative Samuel Alito has been under fire for the actions of his wife, who flew flags at their home that were also displayed by Trump supporters attacking the US Capitol on Jan 6, 2021. Alito rejected calls from Democratic lawmakers to step aside from Trump cases.

The Austin event to honour Johnson’s signing of the Civil Rights Act 60 years ago marks Biden’s first public event outside of Washington since announcing he would not seek re-election. He originally planned to visit earlier this month but delayed his trip following the assassination attempt on Trump.

Monday’s event comes amid dramatically different circumstances for the president and American voters. Biden decided to forgo a re-election bid, instead endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, now the likely Democratic nominee.

In an uncanny twist, Biden is visiting the library of the last US commander in chief to opt against seeking another term in office. Johnson in 1968 announced he would not accept his party’s nomination with Democrats weakened by divisions over the Vietnam War.

For Biden, helping elect Harris would be critical to protecting his legacy and in recent weeks the president had sought to shore up his standing with key blocs in the Democratic coalition. A long-time US senator, whose tenure included stints as the chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, Biden dismissed pressure from liberal groups in the past to embrace Supreme Court reforms.

  - Bloomberg