Biden will call for Supreme Court reforms and constitutional limits on presidential immunity

President Joe Biden is expected on Monday to ask for a review of the Supreme Court and a constitutional amendment that limits his own power – reforms that may not be implemented but demonstrate his priorities in his final months in office.

Biden is expected to deliver remarks in the afternoon at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, calling for a constitutional amendment saying that former presidents do not have any immunity from federal criminal charges, trials, convictions or sentences, according to a House Official. White.

The change is in line with Biden’s recent statements that “no president is above the law,” a refrain he has repeated several times since the Supreme Court said some actions related to a president’s duties cannot be prosecuted. The ruling favors former President Donald Trump in criminal proceedings against him and could allow other former presidents to avoid pursuing certain criminal charges.

Biden also wants Congress to create term limits for Supreme Court members, the White House official told NBC News, adding that Biden favors an 18-year term for justices, which he believes would prevent any president would have multigenerational influence on the judiciary.

In addition to term limits, Biden will call on Congress to subject the Supreme Court to the type of applicable ethics requirements imposed on other federal judges regarding gifts, political activities and financial transactions, according to the official.

Biden will present his proposals at the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The event was rescheduled the day after Trump’s assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13. He was expected to present his plans the following Monday, but instead remained at the White House during his administration’s initial investigation into the shooting.

In his address to the nation after recovering from Covid-19 last week, Biden explained why he chose to end his re-election campaign and how he planned to spend his final months in office. He then suggested supporting major changes to the Supreme Court.

“I will call for reform of the Supreme Court because this is fundamental to our democracy,” Biden said in the Oval Office.

NBC News reported this month that Biden planned to endorse a series of court reforms and notified members of Congress of his thinking.

Biden was reluctant to support significant changes to the Supreme Court early in his political career. The change in his public stance on court reform follows recent controversies involving Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and decisions led by the conservative majority on issues such as abortion rights — decisions that Biden has sharply criticized. Biden told a crowd at a fundraiser last month that the Supreme Court “has never been more out of balance than it is today.”

Last week, Justice Elena Kagan became the first member of the court to call for a stronger code of ethics in remarks at an annual judicial conference in California on Thursday. She signed the Supreme Court’s new code of ethics last year, but in remarks last week she said an enforcement mechanism is needed.

“Both in terms of enforcing the rules against people who break them, but also in terms of protecting people who don’t break them — I think a system like that would make sense,” Kagan said.

Even with the presidential push for reforms, such legislation is unlikely to pass Congress. Before canceling his presidential bid, Biden spoke to House Democrats, saying he would need their help to pass changes — and would likely need to persuade some Republicans to reach across the aisle, given his majority in the House and Democrats’ narrow majority in the Senate .

Senate Democrats introduced reforms to the Supreme Court last year, but Republican opposition thwarted the effort last month.