Biden's Plan to Undo the Trump Immunity Decision

[bats]

It was in an op-ed published Monday in the Washington Post. Simply, Biden is calling for a constitutional amendment that would make clear that no President is above the law or immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.

This makes complete sense and would be entirely unnecessary if not for the decision by our very corrupt Supreme Court to let Trump off the hook for virtually all of his criminality.

Unfortunately, because constitutional amendments are a bitch to get passed (as they should be), he can't practically tack on a reform to the Citizen's United decision or a restoration of Roe v. Wade.

[HighStepper]

In remarks at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, Biden said the reforms would target presidential immunity, term limits for Supreme Court justices and mandatory ethics rules for the court that focus on financial disclosures and conflicts of interest. Link

[Hobby]

I think how the government handles crimes a president may have committed should be the same as anyone else.  Have a grand jury decide on indictment then hold a hearing concerning immunity if it applies.  If the court rules the president is to stand trial then that is what happens.  The court or appeals court can decide what is criminal and what isnt.

[Danno]

Amy Barrett was put on the court after Trump lost. And Lindsey Graham says that the new rules would be bad.

[dogwalker]

    Yes a Constitutional amendment requires approval by two thirds of the House and Senate AND three fourths of all state legislatures.  Does not seem possible to do currently. The last constitutional amendment (27th), which many may have never heard of, was approved fairly recently, in 1992.  It locks in changes to Congressional salaries until the next election.  So if an amendment is self-serving and highly bipartisan it might be approved.
    The term limits proposal might be a hard sell at any time but particularly now. Some have proposed an 18 year term for Supreme Court justices but if the court has a particularly large conservative or liberal bias like it does now and if some younger justices might live 30-40 years (the longest a justice served was for 36 years) after an appointment (i.e.,  longer than an 18 year term) what is the motivation for those that are on the same side as the court majority to hand over control?  So how and when such term limits are phased in could be tricky.  I'd say make it effective at some future date when it may not be so clear which side has the majority but that may have to be very far in the future when all current justices might presumably be dead or retired.

[Danno]

18 year limit, staggered so we get someone new every 2 years.
could just start the 18 year count down now, and not include the years already on the court.
never liked the life time appointment

[HighStepper]

18 year limit, staggered so we get someone new every 2 years.
could just start the 18 year count down now, and not include the years already on the court.
never liked the life time appointment

A new justice would take the bench every two years and spend 18 years participating in all Supreme Court cases, after which the justice would be limited to hearing a small number of constitutionally required cases.

Each President, elected by the American people, will appoint two Supreme Court justices for each term. The president, within the first 120 days of the first and third years of the president's term, to appoint one Supreme Court justice, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.
Link

[bats]

Yes a Constitutional amendment requires approval by two thirds of the House and Senate AND three fourths of all state legislatures.  Does not seem possible to do currently. The last constitutional amendment (27th), which many may have never heard of, was approved fairly recently, in 1992.  It locks in changes to Congressional salaries until the next election.  So if an amendment is self-serving and highly bipartisan it might be approved.
    The term limits proposal might be a hard sell at any time but particularly now. Some have proposed an 18 year term for Supreme Court justices but if the court has a particularly large conservative or liberal bias like it does now and if some younger justices might live 30-40 years (the longest a justice served was for 36 years) after an appointment (i.e.,  longer than an 18 year term) what is the motivation for those that are on the same side as the court majority to hand over control?  So how and when such term limits are phased in could be tricky.  I'd say make it effective at some future date when it may not be so clear which side has the majority but that may have to be very far in the future when all current justices might presumably be dead or retired.

The difficulty of amending the constitution is undoubtedly the reason Biden is calling for just one simple amendment that would require opposing Republicans to stand up and declare their support for our brand new system (thanks to SCOTUS) where a president has absolute immunity for crimes committed in the course of performing his official acts.

This is one of those things that would take years. For one thing, we'd have to be well beyond the Trump era because today's Republicans would have no problem regurgitating Trump's reasons for absolute immunity. But Biden is now in a position to at least get that ball rolling.

The term limits and the enforceable ethics rules wouldn't come in the form of constitutional amendments. They'd be passed by Congress.

[HighStepper]

The difficulty of amending the constitution is undoubtedly the reason Biden is calling for just one simple amendment that would require opposing Republicans to stand up and declare their support for our brand new system (thanks to SCOTUS) where a president has absolute immunity for crimes committed in the course of performing his official acts.

This is one of those things that would take years. For one thing, we'd have to be well beyond the Trump era because today's Republicans would have no problem regurgitating Trump's reasons for absolute immunity. But Biden is now in a position to at least get that ball rolling.

The term limits and the enforceable ethics rules wouldn't come in the form of constitutional amendments. They'd be passed by Congress.

A constitutional amendment is not easily accomplished. It must either be proposed by a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate or a constitutional convention is requested by 34 states. From there, 38 state legislatures would have to approve it. The last time an amendment was added to the Constitution was the 27th Amendment in 1992, which concerned changes in pay for Congress. Link

[Romanticlover]

Biden is hiding in his basement and we won't hear from him again.
Two weeks ago y'all were saying Biden was healthy and full of vigor, now all of y'all have forgotten him.

I want to know who is running the White House now, is it Kamala?

[Hobby]

Biden is hiding in his basement and we won't hear from him again.
Two weeks ago y'all were saying Biden was healthy and full of vigor, now all of y'all have forgotten him.

I want to know who is running the White House now, is it Kamala?

Biden is not forgotten but after the debate the voter perception of him has changed he still has his intellect but he stumbles when communicating far worse now than ever has. Trump will be the same in 3 years.

[Romanticlover]

I said it fours ago after the last election that Biden wouldn't last two terms and I was right.
My posts only go back two years on here but if you still have the posts from four years ago in archive you can see what I wrote.

EDIT: I found this post from two years ago

https://fantasysaloon.com/index.php/topic,229.msg1536.html#msg1536

[Danno]

funny, he's on tv everyday. 

Biden is hiding in his basement and we won't hear from him again.
Two weeks ago y'all were saying Biden was healthy and full of vigor, now all of y'all have forgotten him.

I want to know who is running the White House now, is it Kamala?

[Romanticlover]

funny, he's on tv everyday. 

Not since that mumbling Oval Office address that was his farewell speech.

[Danno]

guess you don't watch the right channels