Term limits and an enforceable ethics code for United States Supreme Court Justices are being proposed by President Joe Biden months before Election Day and his exit from office. Published by the Washington Post on Monday, the Democratic President cited recent Supreme Court decisions to give broad immunity to presidents and overturned Roe vs. Wade as part of his rationale for making the proposal. "I have great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers," Biden wrote in his op-ed piece. "What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public's confidence in the court's decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms. We now stand in a breach." His proposal calls for no immunity for crimes a former president committed in office, 18-year term limits for U.S. Supreme Court justices, and a code of conduct for those justices. Liberals applaud the proposals after recent decisions and reports that some of the court's conservative members have taken lavish gifts without recusing themselves from different cases. Conservatives have spoken out about it too, with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) saying that Democrats made no efforts to change things when the high court was more liberal-leaning and former President Donald Trump calling the proposal illegal and "unconstitutional." Jay Heck from Common Cause Wisconsin is more encouraged by the prospects of a code of ethics for Supreme Court justices than term limits but believes both measures are worth the conversation.

Heck says the conversation shows how consequential elections are, adding that it is likely that the next president will be able to name two or even three new justices to the U.S. Supreme Court in addition to other federal judgeships across the country to lifetime appointments. He believes the margins in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House are too tight to turn the proposal into the law of the land.