The Harris-Walz campaign posted its recent policy positions on its website on Monday. It proposed a plan that would possibly force the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas by next year, along with two additional GOP-appointed justices before the next decade.
Released a day before the scheduled debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. The new policy outline includes what the Harris-Walz campaign refers to as “commonsense Supreme Court reforms” like “improving term limits.” It remains unclear how long Harris thinks a justice should remain on the nation’s highest court before she or he would be forced automatically into retirement. Her campaign dedicated additional attention and detail on its site toward attacking former President Trump for the three justices he nominated during his single term in office.
“Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom — and now he brags about it,” wrote the campaign, according to a section on its website under “Restore and Protect Reproductive Freedoms.”
But Harris’s campaign is reported to have indicated her position is “aligned” with a more detailed plan to replace at least three GOP-appointed justices by 2029, according to a statement by her ally, Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, last month.
“They have not gone so far as to say, ‘We endorse your bill.’ They have said that your bills are precisely aligned with what we are talking about,” said Whitehouse of his Senate Bill 3096, also known as the Supreme Court Biennial Appointments and Term Limits Act, which would impose 18-year term limits for justices despite legislators in Congress facing no such term limits.
The legislation calls for presidents to nominate, with the Senate confirming, a new justice to the high court every two years. Only the nine justices appointed most recently would sit for oral arguments, with the remaining justices participating in appellate cases as needed — such as in the case of a recusal — and effectively maintaining a semi-retired status.
Legal experts have expressed caution over SCOTUS term limits
If Whitehouse’s legislation were to be enacted under Harris, she could replace Clarence Thomas in 2025, followed by Chief Justice John Roberts in 2027. Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, would be next in line to be forced into retirement if she were to win a second term.
While the passage of such legislation would generally require a two-thirds vote, Whitehouse indicated Dems could pass such a law by a simple majority if they reclaim control of both the White House and Congress after the November election.
Legal experts have expressed caution that Supreme Court term limits legislation would face a tough uphill battle toward passage because the U.S. Constitution’s Article 3 suggests justices and judges shall retain their positions during “good behavior,” meaning they can’t be involuntarily replaced unless they are impeached by the House and convicted by trial in the Senate by a two-thirds vote.
Whitehouse’s legislation is the most comprehensive and serious effort by Democrats thus far to impose reforms on the Supreme Court via legislation. What other proposals or legislation addressing the Supreme Court Harris was referencing on her campaign website remains unclear. She also said she would support imposing a binding code of ethics on the justices.
As part of the policy items rollout for the Harris-Walz campaign, the Democratic nominee additionally backed other controversial measures, including the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Advancement Act—two bills that Republicans have said could actually result in censorship and less secure elections.
