Former Attorney General Bill Barr voiced his concerns about President Biden’s Supreme Court reform proposals on Monday, arguing they would eliminate conservative justices from the high court and “destroy the independence of the judiciary.”
“Americans need to understand that the campaign to radically change the Court is coming. While current proposals, such as term limits for senior justices and an imposed code of ethics, threaten the Constitution and the separation of powers, the extreme left demands that the Court be filled with additional liberal justices,” wrote Barr and Kelly Shackelford — president, CEO and chief counsel of the First Liberty Institute — in an opinion article published with Fox News on Monday.
Barr and Shackelford said such changes would become a reality if the eventual Democratic presidential nominee — likely Vice President Harris — wins in November.
“If they win, that is exactly what will happen, and all it will take is a majority vote and the president’s signature,” they wrote, pointing to a comment from Harris, who supposedly said she is “open” to a conversation about increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court.
Biden released his own op-ed in The Washington Post on Monday morning, endorsing sweeping reforms to the nation’s highest court.
His three-pronged proposal includes 18-year term limits for the nine judges, which would allow the sitting president to appoint a new judge every two years, and a binding code of conduct.
The proposals mark a significant shift for Biden, who has typically resisted progressives’ calls for Supreme Court reforms due to concerns that it would politicize the bench. Harris said Monday that he supports Biden’s plan.
Barr’s op-ed pointed to comments made by then-Sen. Biden in 1983, during which he argued that changing the court’s structure was a “stupid idea.”
“He was right. The last thing we need in this country right now is a Supreme Court coup that would threaten our democratic republic,” the article stated.
Echoing the sentiments of many Republicans, who staunchly oppose Supreme Court reform, Barr and Shackelford accused the left of trying to “take over” the bench out of anger over some of its recent decisions.
Biden has increasingly criticized the court, especially after it overturned constitutional protections for abortion and granted some criminal immunity to presidents.
“The left is only bothered by a small number of cases with which it disagrees and is willing to overturn the Court and the rule of law to get what it wants,” the article stated. “The Supreme Court is the only branch of government that prevents one-party rule.”
The article painted a bleak picture of what “judicial packaging” could look like in life, suggesting that civil and religious liberties would be limited and that First Amendment rights for political opponents on the left would be “trampled.”
“In reality, ‘court reform’ is nothing more than a desperate attack to subvert the legitimacy of the Supreme Court because it contains a majority of justices committed to the Constitution and originalism,” Barr and Shackelford wrote. “If this coup is successful, the rule of law will end, as the judiciary will become little more than a political tool for those in power.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
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