AFT President Urges Congress to Enact Supreme Court Reforms for Democracy

WASHINGTON—AFT President Backs Supreme Court Reforms Proposed by Biden Administration

AFT President Randi Weingarten has endorsed recent calls by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for significant reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court, including the introduction of a binding code of ethics and the implementation of term limits for justices.

Weingarten emphasized concerns regarding the current Supreme Court's decisions over the past two years, highlighting various contentious rulings. “Over the last two years, the extremist, activist majority on the Supreme Court has rewritten the Constitution, thrown out long-settled precedents, scrapped environmental protections, eliminated deference to science and expertise, granted corporations new powers over us, and stripped women’s freedom to make their own reproductive decisions. It has granted presidents near-total immunity and almost limitless powers, creating a rule of one, not a rule of law. This Supreme Court has laid the legal foundation for American autocracy,” she stated.

Weingarten expressed strong support for the proposed measures, asserting that they would reinforce democratic principles and hold justices to higher ethical standards. “These commonsense proposals reclaim the foundation stones of our democracy and constitutional republic. By establishing term limits, we ensure justices cannot simply occupy the court for decades to serve the whims of a single president or ideology. Justices should have held themselves to the highest standards; by establishing an enforceable code of ethics, they can now be held to the same commonsense standards as any other public official. And by taking on presidential immunity, we can ensure no one is above the law,” she explained.

Calling for swift legislative action, Weingarten urged Congress to adopt these reforms to prevent further erosion of freedoms by what she described as an unchecked judiciary. “We call on Congress to immediately enact these crucial guardrails against judicial overreach. We cannot allow our freedoms to continue being eroded by an all-powerful, unaccountable and unchecked body, dominated by politicians in robes. To paraphrase Justice Sonia Sotomayor, ‘with fear for our democracy, we must act.’”

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The AFT represents 1.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.