This Is Why I Support President Biden’s Proposed Supreme Court Reforms: Steve Cohen

4 months ago

On "Forbes Newsroom," Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) spoke about President Biden’s Supreme Court reform proposals.

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Transcript

00:00Earlier this week, President Biden laid out multiple Supreme Court reform proposals,

00:06including ensuring no immunity for crimes committed by former presidents during their term,

00:11establishing term limits for Supreme Court justices, and implementing a binding code of

00:15conduct. You endorsed these proposals, so can you tell us why? Well, they're all good proposals and

00:22good things we should have in our government, things the Founding Fathers never thought about.

00:26I'm sure they didn't think that there would be immunity for the president when they just fought

00:31a king in a bloody revolutionary war where many Americans died, colonists fighting for our

00:36independence. The idea was not to have a king, you have people be the rulers, and there's never

00:41been any precedent for the king, the president having this type of immunity. And when it's

00:47particularly, it's Trump who's done so much to go beyond his powers by leading a coup on the

00:53United States and asking people to charge the Capitol, or you won't have a country anymore,

00:59and calling those people hostages and saying they're great heroes and he will commute their

01:06sentences, you see a president who would take those powers he's been given with immunity

01:11and stretch them to the end, including overthrowing our government, which is,

01:14I believe, which was an impeachable offense, which he was impeached but not convicted,

01:19and we should be tried in court, and we'll be, except for the Supreme Court, not

01:26slowing everything down so the wheels of justice can't spin at the right pace and allow for trial

01:31before this election so the people will know what their precedents are. So that's one that I

01:35currently agree with. The term, nobody expected President Pete Heumans, let alone Supreme Court

01:40justices, to live an expected life expectancy of 80 or so. When the Constitution was drawn up, I think

01:46the average lifespan is probably about 50 something years, and people have gotten older,

01:51and nobody expected they'd be on the court that long, and it's been shown that nine isn't a

01:56sufficient number. It has expanded over the years. Generally, in relation to the number of districts,

02:02we had circuit districts, and we now have 13 districts. Expanding the court would be a good

02:06thing, too, but the term limits idea of having an 18-year term limit and having them be on a

02:12revolving basis to where you can't have Mitch McConnell in the future use processes to deny

02:17a vote on Merrick Garland, to speed through a nomination on Tony Barrett when he didn't allow

02:24a vote to be brought up on Merrick Garland, and other issues related to Kavanaugh on the FBI,

02:33all kind of problems. And then what Alito did that his wife did, he's the first wife,

02:39on flying those flags, both at his home and at his vacation home, were inappropriate for

02:45Supreme Court justice, and what Paris Thomas has done in accepting hundreds of thousands,

02:50millions of dollars worth of gifts for his Winnebago, wherever it may not be a Winnebago,

02:58it's probably a Cadillac Winnebago, and for trips to exotic resorts all paid for by

03:05Mr. Crow in Texas and not report those, that's wrong, too. So there should be a code of ethics.

03:11Every court has one. Supreme Court should abide by one, and there should be one. So I agree with

03:15all I'm saying. Whether they'll happen in this Congress, I don't think so. The Republicans

03:19won't vote for anything at all that changes the Supreme Court or their ability to influence it.

03:26So it's unlikely to happen. Constitutional amendments would take a large supermajority

03:30in that to the states. That's not going to happen either. But the first thing that has

03:34to happen with any kind of change is to be introduced to the marketplace of ideas and

03:37have it be discussed. So it's good that it's in the marketplace. It's good that it'll be discussed

03:41to some extent. I doubt Jim Jordan will bring it to a vote in the Judiciary Committee and bring it

03:45up even to be debated. But it gets there. The public knows about it, and it's where the Democrats

03:50think we should be. And so it's good that he proposed it, and that's why I support it.

This Is Why I Support President Biden’s Proposed Supreme Court Reforms: Steve Cohen

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