President Biden’s Proposed Supreme Court Reforms SUBTITLE: Constitutional historians evaluate President Biden’s reform package a three-fold plan to reform the Supreme Court. The proposal includes a constitutional amendment that no former president is immune from prosecution for crimes committed in office, 18-year Supreme Court term limits, and a binding code of conduct for Supreme Court Justices. In this episode, constitutional historians Keith Whittington of Yale Law School and Anthony Michael Kreis of Georgia State University and author of the new book Rot and Revival: The History of Constitutional Law in Political Development, join Jeffrey Rosen to discuss the mechanics and merits of President Biden’s proposed court reforms and delve into the relationship between politics and the judiciary from the founding until today.
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Today’s episode was produced by Lana Ulrich, Samson Mostashari, and Bill Pollock. It was engineered by Bill Pollock. Research was provided by Samson Mostashari, Cooper Smith, and Yara Daraiseh.
Participants
Anthony Michael Kreis is an assistant professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law, where he teaches constitutional law and employment discrimination. He has also participated in civil rights litigation and civil rights legislative initiatives. His new book, Rot and Revival: The History of Constitutional Law in Political Development, was published last month.
Keith Whittington is David Boies Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He is founding chair of the Academic Committee of the Academic Freedom Alliance and a Hoover Institution visiting fellow. He is the author of several books including Repugnant Laws: Judicial Review of Acts of Congress from the Founding to the Present (2019) and most recently, You Can’t Teach That!: The Battle Over University Classrooms (2024).
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center. Rosen is also a professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. His most recent book is The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America.
Additional Resources:
- President Joe Biden, "My plan to reform the Supreme Court and ensure no president is above the law," The Washington Post (July 29, 2024)
- Presidential Commission on SCOTUS
- Anthony Michael Kreis, Rot and Revival: The History of Constitutional Law in Political Development (2024)
- Keith Whittington, Repugnant Laws: Judicial Review of Acts of Congress from the Founding to the Present (2019)
- Keith Whittington, Political Foundations of Judicial Supremacy: The Presidency, the Supreme Court, and Constitutional Leadership in U.S. History (2007)
- “Can Congress enact Supreme Court term limits without a constitutional amendment?,” Constitution Daily (July 2024)
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