Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch admonished President Biden over his recent push to make changes to the high court.
“I just say: Be careful,” Gorsuch warned in an interview that aired on “Fox News Sunday.”
Last Monday, Biden, 81, unveiled a long-shot reform package for the Supreme Court that Vice President Kamala Harris quickly endorsed.
The package would entail 18-year term limits for justices on the high bench, a binding code of ethics for justices, and a constitutional amendment to effectively reverse its ruling that a president enjoys absolute immunity for official acts.
Up until that point, Biden had largely resisted pleas from his progressive base to push for deep reforms to the high court.
“You’re not going to be surprised that I’m not going to get into what is now a political issue during a presidential election year. I don’t think that would be helpful,” Gorsuch first replied when asked about Biden’s proposal.
However, Gorsuch, the first of three justices Trump nominated to the Supreme Court, underscored the importance of an independent judiciary.
“The independent judiciary … What does it mean to you as an American?” Gorsuch pondered. “It means that when you’re unpopular, you can get a fair hearing.”
“If you’re in the majority, you don’t need judges and juries, to hear you, to protect your rights, if you’re popular,” Gorsuch went on. “It’s there for the moments when the spotlight’s on you — when the government’s coming after you. And don’t you want a ferociously independent judge and a jury of your peers to make those decisions?”
The 56-year-old justice refrained from delving into the specifics of Biden’s proposal.
Democrats have long been vexed by the conservative majority on the high court.
Trump managed to appoint three justices in part due to Senate Republicans’ refusal to take up former President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland, followed by the sudden death of former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020.
Since then, the high court has delivered the left a string of high-profile losses, reversing the controversial Roe v. Wade decision, striking down gun control laws, dealing a blow to the power of the administrative state, backing Trump’s immunity push and more.
Biden established a commission in 2021 to examine the controversy surrounding the Supreme Court, but ultimately, its report did not lead to any major reforms.
Some Democrats have actively mused about expanding the number of seats on the high court. Many have called for an ethics code with teeth to it in the wake of revelations about benefits Justice Clarence Thomas received from GOP mega-donor Harlan Crow as well as controversies involving other justices.
Last November, the Supreme Court adopted its first ever code of ethics amid mounting pressure, but critics on the left were unsatisfied and have clamored for Congress to take charge.
In July 2023, Justice Samuel Alito told the Wall Street Journal that in his opinion, “No provision in the Constitution gives them [Congress] the authority to regulate the Supreme Court.”
Some of the liberal justices such as Elena Kagan have publicly indicated they’d be receptive to an ethics code with a more robust enforcement mechanism.
During a recent interview with a New York Times columnist, Gorsuch was coy about whether he’d support that.
Gorsuch sat down for Sunday’s Fox News interview to promote his new book, set to hit bookshelves Tuesday, “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law,” which he authored with one of his former law clerks.
“As a judge now for 18 years, I just came to see case after case in which ordinary Americans — just trying to live their lives, not hurt anybody, raise their families — were just getting whacked by laws unexpectedly,” Gorsuch explained.
The justice stressed that, “On the one hand, we need laws to keep us free and safe.”
“On the other hand, if you have too many laws, you impair those same freedoms and our aspirations for equality, too, because who can deal with a world with so much law?” Gorsuch added.