President Biden proposed major changes to the Supreme Court on Monday, including 18-year term limits for justices and a binding code of conduct.
Under Mr. Biden’s term-limit plan, presidents would appoint a new Supreme Court justice every two years. If that rule had already been in effect over the past two decades and each justice had served the full 18-year term, the court’s ideological split would be flipped, as this chart shows.
The Supreme Court now includes six conservative justices, appointed by former Presidents Donald J. Trump, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, as well as three liberal ones, appointed by Mr. Biden and former President Barack Obama. Three of the justices, all conservatives, have served longer than 18 years: Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas.
If term limits had allowed the president to choose a justice every two years during the most recent four administrations, those numbers would be reversed: Six justices would have been appointed by Democratic presidents, and three by Republicans.
Mr. Biden also proposed a constitutional amendment in opposition to the court’s decision this month that presidents are entitled to substantial immunity from criminal prosecution. His three plans are unlikely to come to fruition soon. The overhaul would require congressional approval, which is not expected to come from a Republican-controlled House and a divided Senate.
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