TrueValueMetrics ... Impact Accounting for the 21st Century

Date: 2025-08-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00027214

SCOTUS REFORM PROPOSAL FROM POTUS ... AUGUST 2023 White House: President outlines POTUS reform urgently needed in the USA PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXaM400cAyk Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xflffWWrsHs 0:00 all right hey everybody thank you so much for joining we have an announcement from Joe Biden he's doing a brief speech right now so I'm going to not waste any time and turn it right over to uh the president here so that we can hear what he has to say as far as uh Supreme Court reform is concerned thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you really thank you please 1:00 thank you Mr Ambassador Ambassador thanks for that introduction and above all for your friendship over the years there's only one word that comes to mind every time I think of Andy young the words Integrity absolute integrity and thank you to the Johnson family for caring for the Legacy a truly great president and first lady your mama is incredible as well same goes to Mark upgo president of the LBJ Foundation it's great to back be back here I thank you all and distinguished guests gathered here today look I was in college at the University of Delaware in our early beginning years when I heard the news of Doc that President Kennedy had been assassinated I remember exactly like anybody in my generation remembers exactly where they were sitting standing or walking I was on the steps of one of the Halls 2:03 one of the University Halls called Holan Hall at the University listening on transistor radio with three other people seemed unbelievable and then later watching President Johnson help the nation find a way forward and his first address after the tragedy President Johnson said and I quote nothing could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest passage of the Civil Rights bill that's what he [Music] said as a kid coming up I always admired President Johnson for his Public Service whether was a school teacher in southern Tex South Texas Master of the United States Senate historic vice president and president 3:04 his philosophy was simple you know in a great society in a great society no one no one should be left behind he'd say it's time for us to come to see that every American gets a decent break and a fair chance to make good as Andy young said President Johnson met repeatedly with the civil rights leaders and build a coalition to bring that Vision to life he did he brought to life over 50 years the LBJ Foundation has convened this Symposium to reflect one of the crowning achievements the Civil Rights Act of 1964 a defining moment that has since opened doors of opportunities for all Americans regardless of race sexual orientation gender gender identity religion national origin together with the Voting Rights Act the Fair Housing Act these three 4:02 Landmark laws he signed are remarkable in their scale and their scope taking together these three acts have made this nation fundamentally more fair fundamentally more just and most importantly fundamentally more consistent with our founding principles for [Music] real and we're a better Nation because because of them we must be clear their work our work is not done it's not done we do not celebrate these laws as part of our past but as critical components of our future President Johnson understood what President Lincoln understood in his own time that the courts would determine the scale and scope the scale and scope of our laws over 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation President Johnson vowed in his words to do this job that Lincoln started to do this job that Lincoln started by 5:06 challenging the court to live up to his constitutional responsibility he did that by nominating th Marshall as the first black Justice of the Supreme Court by aggressively defending civil rights throughout the courts but now we live in a different era in recent years extreme opinions that the Supreme Court has handed down have undermined long establish civil rights principles and protections 2013 Supreme Court in Shelby County case gutted the Voting Rights Act opening the floodgates to a wave of restrictive voting laws that have seen States across the country pass in 2022 the court overrule Ro be Wade and the right to choose that been the law of 6:03 the land for 50 years 50 years the following year the same court eviscerated affirmative action which had been upheld and reaffirmed for nearly 50 years as well and now there's an extreme movement and agenda called project 2025 well it by the way they're serious man they're planning another on SL attacking civil rights in America for example project 2025 calls aggressively attacking diversity equity and inclusion all across all aspects of American life this extreme Maga movement even proposes the end birth rate citizenship that's how far they've come and birth rate citizenship which if you're born in America you're an American citizen that's how extreme these guys are this issue and so many other civil 7:00 rights that Americans take for granted are likely to come before the court in the years to come and most recently and most shockingly Supreme Court established in Trump versus the United States a dangerous precedent they ruled as you know that the president of the United States has immunity for for for potential crimes he may have committed while in office immunity this nation was founded on the principle there are no Kings in America each of us is equal before the law no one is above the law and for all practical purposes the Court's decision almost certainly means that the president can violate their oath flout our laws and face no consequences here's what Justice s to my ear Supreme Court Justice Roden her descent I quote under the majority's reasoning president now will be insulated from from Criminal prosecution orders a Navy SEAL Team Six 8:03 to assassinate a political rival immune organizes a military coup to hold on to power immune takes a bribe in exchange for pardon immune in every use of official power the president is now a king Above the Law just what J sary wrote in her descent folks just imagine what a president could do in trampling civil rights and Liberties given such immunity the courts being used to weaponize an extreme and unchecked agenda this decision is a total affront to the basic expectations we have for those who wield the power in this nation that they are expected to be wholly accountable under the law the president is no longer constrained by the law and only limits on abuse of power will be self-imposed by the president 9:01 alone that's a fundamentally flawed View and a fundamentally flawed principle a dangerous principle on top of its extreme decisions the court is mired in a crisis of Ethics these scandals involving the justices have caused public opinion to question the Court's fairness and Independence that are essential to Faithfully carrying out its Mission we call justice under the law for example there are documented reports of a decades long effort to reshape the Judiciary including the Supreme Court back by Shadow special interest that also support project 2025 undisclosed gift of justice is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy benefactors who have interest before the very Court they're contributing to conflict of interest from those connected to January 6th insurrectionist and the blatant attack 10:01 on nominating confirming justices of the court itself do you all remember when Justice Scalia died in February of 2016 and the Republicans blocked our the president's nomination President Obama's nomination to fill that vacancy for nearly a year by making up an entirely new standard that there be no confirmations of the Court during an election year but then when Justice gimberg died G Ginsburg died in 2020 Republicans rushed through the president's Trump's nominee at the very same time votes are being cast in an election that Trump would lose it's outrageous I know I don't look it but I served in the senate for 36 years including as chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee I'm been told that I've overseen more Supreme Court nominations as Senator vice president and president 11:05 than anyone in history anyone alive today I should say I have great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers laid out in our constitution but what's happening now is not consistent with that doctrine of separation of powers extremism is undermining the public confidence in the Court's decision as soon as I came to office I convened a bipartisan presidential commission on the Supreme Court of the United States comprised of leading constitutional Scholars both liberal and conservative to provide recommendations on potential reforms to the court I've been careful in these deliberations because these are serious serious decisions in the face of increasing threats to American Democratic institutions I use the commission's analysis and today I'm calling for three bold reforms to Restort trust and accountability to the court and our 12:07 democracy as a press shout to me as I got off Air Force One the Republican Speaker of the House said whatever he proposes is dead on Aral why I think he thinking is Dead on Arrival first I'm calling for a constitutional Amendment called no one is above the law Amendment it holds I mean it sincerely it holds there no immunity for crimes former president committed while in office I share our Founders belief that president must answer to the law the president is accountable in the exercise of the great power of the president We're a nation of laws not Kings and 13:07 dictators the decision can be booed down to the title of one case Trump versus the United States a court asserted it was making a ruling for the ages that isn't true the court made a ruling for one a former president no other president of our history has asked for this kind of immunity for criminal actions and no president no former president not me not one not one has in should have been given given any exception to this with such immunity the second thing I'm asking for we've had ter term limits for presiden of the United States for nearly 75 years after the Truman Administration and I believe we should have term Li for Supreme Court Justice the United States as [Applause] 14:10 well in fact the United States is the only major constitutional democracy that gives lifetime seats in their High Court term limits would help ensure that the court membership changes with some regularity that would be make timing for the the course nomination more predictable and less arbitrary reduce the chance that any single president imposes undue influence in generations to come the bipartisan commission Iain analyze various term limit structures based on their report I believe the best structure is the 18-year term limit that would help ensure the country would not have what it has now an extreme Court that's Sur proud of an attack on the confirmation process that's been weaponized by those seeking to carry out an extreme agenda 15:04 for decades to come by the way these guys mean it these guys mean it project 2025 is real they mean it third I'm calling for a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court [Music] Supreme Court's current ethics code is weak and even more frightening voluntary voluntary any code of Congress must be enforcable under the reform I proposed Justice would be required to disclose gifts refrain from public political activity recuse themselves in cases in which they have they or their spouses have a financial or other conflict of interest most people don't realize that Congress passed the law 16:04 decades ago that says all federal judges including Supreme Court justices have to recuse themselves in such cases but the current justices insist on enforcing that requirement themselves without any public oversight or compulsion see that's their decision they don't have to tell us how they made it that might work the court was actually enforcing those requirements but they are not the court is not self-policing the court is not dealing with the obvious conflicts of interest we need a mandatory code of ethics for the Supreme Court and we need it [Music] now my fellow Americans based on all my experience I'm certain we need these reforms we need these reforms to restore trust in the courts preserve the system of checks and 17:04 balances that are vital toward democracy there also Common Sense reforms that a vast majority of the American people support as well as leading constitutional law Scholars progressives and conservatives I look forward to working with the Congress to implement these necessary reforms a number of members of Congress are here today let me close with this President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 just two days before the 4th of July he said in that bill signing and I quote this is a proud Triumph yet those who founded our country through the freedom would be secure only if each generation fought to renew in a largest en largest meaning end of quote that's what I've tried to do throughout my career inspired by the cause of civil rights [Applause] 18:07 that's what got me involved initially my state was a state that was segregated by law we were one who only reason we didn't figh in this side of the South we couldn't get there I'm serious what motivated me to be a public defender County councilman I'll never forget I had a good job with a big trial firm and uh in Delaware you have to study for the bar for 6 months before you're allowed to take it and in the meanwhile I was studing for the bar that's when Dr King was assassinated we're the only state in the nation sitting in the nation that had the military stationed on every corner with drawn bayonets for 10 months for 10 19:01 months insisting because we had a very conservative Democratic governor in those days when the Democrats won they could choose to be part of the Southern Governors or Northern Governor count North East Governor's conference they choose a southern Governor's conference lots of times but guess what got me engaged I love how reading these biographers of me now that I knew I was going to run for president [Music] I remember walking in to the public defender's office which was part-time at the time and asking for an application because I wanted to join the public vendor office and he looked at me his name is frany Kerns he said don't you work for pricket Ward Burton Sanders I said yeah why the hell would you want to do this not a J but I said let me do it I became a 20:03 public defender folks here's the deal because I got engaged like a lot of you do whether you run for office or not you get engaged and you want to change things so I kept trying to change the Democratic party in my state which is very conservative and then the group of people came to me as my Senator knows Chris Coons came to me and said look we want you to run for state senate I said' I can't I can't go to do all the time I'm just starting a law firm I'm part-time public defender and then they came back to me and said we why don't you run for the County Council I said I can't they said you stupid SOB it's right across the street there I'm serious meets meets only twice a week so my sister and my best friend managed my campaign and we picked a district that we couldn't possibly win no Democrat had ever 21:00 won but my problem was I had my sister doing my campaign and we won next thing I know is part of a group assigned as young Senators young young elected officials to try to bring the party around to get someone to run for the United States Senate and I was put on a commission when you're the young lawyer you get to turn the lights on and off after every meeting and so I remember going down to the Democratic convention off year in do Delaware and after the afternoon session went back and I was in my room nice mot Motel you just drive up to get out walk in your door there and you know an 8 by10 bathroom a shower and a stall and I had my tarami and the shaving cream in my face I Bam Bam Bam at my door and I thought it was the guys I came down with a guy was a real had a talk show named Bob cunning and was a big civil rights 22:02 guy and two others so I thought of them and I walked open the door there was the former Governor former Supreme Court Justice swear to God the the state chairman and the former Congressman I said we just had dinner I I said I'm sorry gentlemen I walked in I ran in the bathroom shake the shave girl think I could put something on there wasn't anything here I walk back out of the tunnel I'm standing against a nail a desk nail to the wall and there they're on the beds that were nailed with the headboards are nailed with the wall four of sitting across he said Joe we are thinking you should run for the United States Senate I said gentlemen are you cra uh you serious and they went on made their case I hope all of you had a professor's enlightened his mind I had one Professor named Dr angol my political philosophy professor at the 23:04 University of Delaware which is between do and where I was going home so I called him I going stop by and see him and I said what do you think I should do he said Joe remember what Plato said I'm thinking what the hell did Plato say seriously so Plato said the penalty good people pay for not being viol in politic being governed by people worse than themselves home spoke to my deceased wife she said look Joe you're working 40 hours a week trying to set up a law firm and you're working 40 hours a week as a public defender get in or get out next I knowah was running we won by a Nixon won my state by 60% of the vote won but we won by staggering 3,800 votes my point is I didn't know what the hell I was doing but look and I went on to be able to be I 24:02 had to wait a little bit to be sworn in you got to be 30 to be sworn in and then I had I was the vice president the first African-American president in American [Music] history now I'm president to our first woman vice [Music] president I made clear how feel about KL and she's been an incredible partner to me a champion of civil rights throughout her career and she'll continue to be an inspiring leader project this very idea of America the very idea that we're all created equal deser to be treated equally throughout our lives we've never fully lived up to that we've never walked away from it we've never walked away because leaders like Lyon main Johnson my fellow Americans and two years will commemorate the 250th anniversary the signing the Declaration of Independence that July 4 of 2026 will be a moment not only about our past but about our future imagine that moment and ask 25:07 yourself what do we want to be we can and must be protected and expand our civil rights in America we can and must prevent the abuse of Presidential Power and restore faith in the Supreme Court we can and must strengthen the guardrails of democracy we must have to remind ourselves who we are we're the United States of America and there is nothing nothing beyond their capacity nothing when we do it together so let's stay together and God bless you all lynon Johnson lady birg Johnson may God bless the whole family ladies and gentlemen may God protect our troops thank you for [Applause] listening okay so let's talk about what he just brought up there because I think 26:01 that a lot of this is important and it definitely requires some clarification in terms of what we can actually get done and what it would take to actually get some of this stuff done so there are three reforms that President Biden called for here so of those three reforms let's discuss what they actually are so the first one is is the no one is above the law Constitutional Amendment this would basically reverse the Supreme Court's 63 decision conferring broad presidential immunity to any any president basically so so here's what I think is especially important here um to actually get this pasted obviously this is monumentally important and absolutely absolutely necessary we've had wrongly decided Supreme Court decisions in the past sometimes they take a couple of decades to fix sometimes they take as many as six decades to fix but those decisions 27:04 include Dread Scott uh koram Matsu uh py versus Ferguson so we've had wrongly decided court cases before they have eventually been overturned this one is very clearly a wrongly decided court case but what is important now is how we actually get this done so first of all to pass a constitutional amendment we would need the support of 2/3 of both houses of Congress so 2third of the house two-thirds of the Senate as well as 3/4 of all the states so obviously a very heavy lift in terms of the actual feasibility of getting a constitutional amendment passed it is unlikely at least in the current makeup of this country of the Congress that we would actually get that done which is not to say that it isn't especially important that Joe Biden come forward and and normalize this idea and just as a quick aside on that that has been Joe Biden's superpower in all of this this is a a 50-year long time Centrist Democratic senator for a long time who became the vice president 28:02 became the president but because he's a Centrist he's been able to normalize a lot of these very Progressive ideas that if a president Bernie Sanders for example brought forward they wouldn't be received the same way so this is a superpower of Biden for him to come forward and call for Supreme Court reform not just unto itself is important but for him to take his time at the end of his presidency and do it right now to make it easier for the next Administration to push for these reforms to normalize this kind of to make it to make it feel like it's not some radical farle communist Marxist plan that is exceedingly important here um I do want to go over two others and that is the idea of term limits and a code of ethics and and shortly I'm going to bring forward uh a discussion a piece of a discussion I had with Mark Elias about exactly this point because I think that this is going to be uh an important dend them to this but the the other two 29:00 things that he brought forward were the idea of 18 18-year term limits so a president would be able to appoint a Supreme Court Justice every two years to spend 18 years on the Supreme Court uh and the second piece is a Code of Ethics that basically says that justices would be required to disclose gifts which would be a major blow to someone like Clarence Thomas who uh may or may not be on a yacht somewhere right now living his best life with Haren Crow who may or may not have business before The Supreme Court it'll also call for uh refraining from from public political activity big blow to Martha an Alo uh and her love of flags and would also call for accusal in cases in which they or their spouses have Financial or other conflicts of interest which would basically uh which would be yet another blow to Clarence Thomas or Samuel Leto and uh and their wives as well so for these two whereas the first constitutional amendment would require 2third of both houses of Congress and 3/4 of the states for 30:02 ratification this would require basic legislation it would go through the regular the regular course of order in in in Congress here so that means that a simple majority in the house and then it has to overcome the filibuster in the Senate unless the filibuster is eliminated in which case we would just need a simple majority of senators now I I do want to switch over to a conversation that I had with Mark Elias because I did ask him let's say for example and just gaming this out while it's highly unlikely that we'll get a constitutional amendment overturning the Supreme Court's decision on immunity at least at least for the moment while Donald Trump is running because that is that is a major that's a major Cornerstone of what Donald Trump needs to become president is is this presidential immunity because so much of his agenda relies on him being able to commit criminal acts with impunity to actually put forward what he wants to put forward but on these other two points term limits and code of ethics passing them through regular order and just getting them through through the house and the Senate I asked mark what 31:02 he thinks in terms of let's say for example we do get these um push through we do get these passed sorry and uh because we've been able to uh gain a majority in both houses of Congress and the Senate decided to eliminate the filibuster I asked would it be possible if the Supreme Court could then meddle in that and overturn that decision so I'm going to I'm going to transfer over here and show you what Mark had to say on exactly that issue well can the Supreme Court overrule a constitutional amendment even on the unlikely chance that it actually does get passed would they have the ability to kind of SWAT it down no they don't right so the Supreme Court has the authority to interpret Constitutional Amendments uh but the once they are in the con once they are once the amendment has passed they are in the Constitution they are part of the text the Supreme Court cannot invalidate a constitutional amendment we have seen the Supreme Court interpret some constitutional Provisions in ways that I don't think are truly faithful to the text but when you read 32:04 this provision and democracy docket has it on their website they wrote a really good article summarizing and they post the actual constitutional text it's pretty hard to get around like the Supreme Court would not be able to navigate around the way in which congressman Ry has framed this and okay so this is uh and I was wrong I apologize for the mistake he was talking about the Constitutional Amendment and uh and whether the Supreme Court would be able to strike that down um and clearly they wouldn't but that again relies on them being able to get it past but I think it's important now that that we discuss this and again kudos to President Biden when he could be doing nothing you know he doesn't have to do this instead he's coming out and using his long-standing his long-standing uh um uh uh like characterization as a Centrist Senator to normalize what would otherwise be perceived as or attacked as um an exceedingly an exceedingly radical idea which is this idea that the Supreme Court is corrupt and it's of course not a radical idea the only thing that's radical in all of this the only thing 33:04 that is that is overtly corrupt and all of this is what the Supreme Court is doing right now so he is basically setting the stage to get people used to this idea that we have a serious PL problem with the Supreme Court that it has that it has you know his that some Court reform has his stamp of approval and that we should move forward with some type of Reform but all of that relies right now all of it on being able to gain majorities in both the house and the Senate and the white house once we do that if we get a simple majority in the house done deal all of this any any legislation just requires a simple majority to be able to pass if we are in the Senate right now without Joe mansion and Kirsten Cinema we have those are the only two senators who have expressed um uh opposition to the filibuster as it stands right now neither one of them are going to be running for reelection which means if we can replace Kiren Cinema with Ruben gyo and that'll bring us down 34:00 to uh to to just one that's Joe mansion and then Joe mansion that seat is as good as gone in West Virginia but if we can still win the rest of the seats that we're defending right now which means sherid Brown in Ohio Jackie Rosen in Nevada Bob Casey in Pennsylvania sherid Brown in Ohio and of course uh Ruben gyo in Arizona uh among a couple of others that are going to be you know tough races regardless uh John tester in Montana for example then we will have a 50 50 majority as long as we have a simple majority they can vote to overturn the filibuster uh and and then we are able to move forward with passing legislation that we need pass like for example codification of abortion rights um and uh and a Voting Rights Act and a uh some whatever iteration of what they call the freedom to vote act so all of these are absolutely necessary but it relies on not just winning at the top of the ticket but winning down ballot as well and so so again good on Biden for standing up here in his lame presidency and basically advocating for these ideas that not just priming the American people to to to to gear up for this 35:05 fight but also normalizing them just by virtue of who Joe Biden is as a president as a longtime Centrist and and showing Americans across the country that if Joe Biden can say it it's not like AOC is advocating for it it's not like uh like you know Bernie Sanders is advocating for it people who've been primed to believe that these are these uh extreme communist Marxist Democrats according to Fox News and Newsmax and O this is Joe Biden who's saying it and again this is this has been his superpower is making making Progressive policy uh or or important advocacy like this seem moderate seem Centrist just by virtue of who the messenger actually is so um we will leave it there of course um it remains to be seen you know nothing is going to happen right now President Biden can't do any of this unilaterally which is important to note he's called for these things he's advocating for these things hopefully if 36:01 and when kamla Harris wins in in November of 2024 this becomes a central plank of her agenda heading into 2025 because it is important but a lot of it's going to rely on our ability to make sure that we keep the house and that we uh keep this or win the house rather and that we keep the Senate both of those are going to be uh crucial to getting anything done at the Supreme Court and uh hopefully we do the see these reforms so with that said um we will I'll jump on either later on today or tomorrow for another live stream for those watching right now if you want to continue to watch these live streams please make sure to subscribe to this channel doesn't cost anything to be able to do that uh but it's a great way to support my work you can see more videos like this one this is my series democracy watch with Mark Elias um as well as a few other series that I host on this channel including an interview series uh a legal series and also my video podcast so to support the work that I do and to see more of this stuff please make sure to subscribe about half of you watching yet right now aren't yet subscribed so again doesn't cost you anything but it's a great way to support this work so with that said I'm going to end it here thank you everybody for watching and I'll uh see you next time

SITE COUNT