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Biden calls for Supreme Court term limits, code of conduct, limits on presidential immunity

Biden calls for Supreme Court term limits, code of conduct, limits on presidential immunity

President Biden will call on Congress to impose term limits and a code of conduct on the Supreme Court while also drafting limits on presidential immunity, a White House official said. Biden will discuss the proposed reforms during remarks on Monday at the LBJ Presidential Library, in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, the official said. Biden also addressed his desire for Supreme Court reform in an op-ed published Monday morning. “I served as a U.S. senator for 36 years, including as chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. I have overseen more Supreme Court nominations as senator, vice president and president than anyone living today,” Biden said in the op-ed, published by the Washington Post.  “I have great respect for our institutions and separation of powers. 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,” Biden wrote. DEMOCRATS TO CONFIRM NOMINEES BY VIRTUAL ROLL CALL WEEKS BEFORE DNC IN CHICAGO TO AVOID LEGAL CHALLENGES Biden’s reforms would eliminate any immunity a former president enjoys for crimes committed while in office. BIDEN’S CABINET DOUBLES DOWN ON SUPPORT FOR PRESIDENT AMID CALLS TO INVOKE 25TH AMENDMENT Regarding the Supreme Court, Biden wants to impose a term limit of 18 years for justices. Once fully adopted, it would allow presidents to appoint new justices at a cadence of once every two years. Biden argued the new Supreme Court code of conduct should require justices to “disclose gifts, refrain from public political activity, and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have financial or other conflicts of interest.” “President Biden and Vice President Harris look forward to working with Congress and empowering the American people to prevent the abuse of Presidential power, restore faith in the Supreme Court, and strengthen the guardrails of democracy,” the White House official said. The op-ed represents Biden’s first major policy push since formally announcing his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race earlier this month.

Trump’s legal wins seem to simplify upcoming general election campaign schedule

Trump’s legal wins seem to simplify upcoming general election campaign schedule

Former President Trump has had a number of legal victories in recent weeks, putting a pause on a majority of cases that could have complicated his campaigning during the general election season.  Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts in office but not for unofficial acts. The high court said Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for “official acts” but left it to the lower court to determine exactly where the line between official and unofficial is. “The President therefore may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts,” the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts states. “That immunity applies equally to all occupants of the Oval Office, regardless of politics, policy, or party.” The question of presidential immunity stemmed from special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 case against Trump. Trump pleaded not guilty to those charges. That trial was put on hold in a lower court pending the Supreme Court’s ruling, which wiped out any charges related to official presidential acts. TRUMP IMMUNITY CASE: SUPREME COURT RULES EX-PRESIDENTS HAVE SUBSTANTIAL PROTECTION FROM PROSECUTION The Supreme Court’s ruling then prompted Trump’s lawyers to request that the former president’s sentencing be delayed in New York v. Trump. He was found guilty on all counts of falsifying business records in the first degree after an unprecedented criminal trial stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation.  TRUMP TOUTS SUPREME COURT’S PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY RULING AS ‘BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND FOR DEMOCRACY’ The sentencing was originally scheduled for July 11, before the Republican National Convention, where Trump would eventually be formally nominated as the GOP presidential nominee. Judge Juan Merchan agreed to delay and said a hearing on the matter would take place Sept. 18.  But days later, Trump’s lawyers asked Merchan to overturn the former president’s guilty verdict in New York v. Trump. Trump attorneys cited the Supreme Court ruling, saying the court should “dismiss the indictment and vacate the jury’s verdict based on violations of the Presidential immunity doctrine and the Supremacy Clause.” In the formal motion, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche pointed to the Supreme Court’s immunity decision and argued certain evidence of “official acts” should not have been admitted during the trial. TRUMP REQUESTS NY JUDGE OVERTURN GUILTY VERDICT, INDICTMENT AFTER SCOTUS IMMUNITY RULING Specifically, Blanche argued that testimony from former White House officials and employees was inappropriately admitted during trial.  Blanche argued Bragg “violated the Presidential immunity doctrine by using similar official-acts evidence in the grand jury proceedings that gave rise to the politically motivated charges in this case.”  A ruling on the motion is pending.  JUDGE DISMISSES TRUMP’S FLORIDA CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS CASE Days later, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed special counsel Jack Smith’s classified records case against Trump.  Trump had faced charges related to alleged improper retention of classified records at Mar-a-Lago. He pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony counts from Smith’s probe, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.  But Cannon dismissed the case altogether, ruling Smith was unlawfully appointed and funded, citing the Appointments Clause in the Constitution.  The Appointments Clause states, “Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States be appointed by the President subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, although Congress may vest the appointment of inferior officers in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.” Smith, however, was never confirmed by the Senate. Smith is appealing the ruling.  TRUMP APPEALS $454M NY CIVIL FRAUD JUDGMENT Meanwhile, in Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis had charged Trump related to alleged 2020 election interference. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts.  The judge in that case dismissed six of the charges against Trump, saying Willis failed to allege sufficient detail.  The case also was thrown into limbo when it was revealed Willis reportedly had an “improper affair” with Nathan Wade, a prosecutor she hired to help bring the case against Trump. Wade was later removed.  Last month, the Georgia Court of Appeals paused the proceedings until it hears the case to disqualify Willis in October, yet another major setback for Willis.  Last week, the Georgia Court of Appeals said it would hear Trump’s argument to have Willis disqualified on Dec. 5, a month after the 2024 presidential election.  Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruling could be applied by Trump attorneys in several civil cases he has been fighting.  In the civil defamation case brought against him by columnist E. Jean Carroll, Trump was ordered to pay more than $83 million in damages after he denied allegations he raped her in the 1990s.  Carroll alleged Trump raped her at the Bergdorf Goodman department store across from Trump Tower in Manhattan in 1996.  The jury found Carroll was injured as a result of statements Trump made while in the White House in June 2019.  Trump’s denial came while he was president during a press gaggle at the White House. Trump attorneys could say the denial came as part of an official presidential act.  His denial resulted in Carroll slapping Trump with a defamation suit, claiming his response caused harm to her reputation.  Trump is also appealing the civil fraud ruling that demanded he pay more than $450 million after a lawsuit brought against him by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump’s legal team this week filed paperwork with a mid-level appeals court, calling the ruling “unconstitutional.”

Harris claimed Biden was completely fit to continue in office, despite many documented encounters in past year

Harris claimed Biden was completely fit to continue in office, despite many documented encounters in past year

Vice President Harris has stated that President Biden is completely fit to finish his term and serve another, despite his debate and interview performances, after having had more than 80 publicly documented encounters over the past year, a Fox News Digital investigation found. From July 18, 2023, to July 17, 2024, Harris, who is now the presumptive Democrat presidential candidate now that Biden has dropped out, shared at least 25 meetings, eight lunches and 46 events with the president, and they spent two times traveling together. That makes Harris one of the people most capable of speaking to the president’s mental acuity. Those dozens of meetings are also only the ones listed on public schedules. Not everything the president or vice president does is listed on these, such as time spent in the Situation Room, where Biden and Harris attend briefings together. They likely would have done so after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel, for example. After Biden’s stumbling and stalled debate performance against former President Trump in Atlanta this past June, Harris sat down with CNN’s Anderson Cooper to try to hold the line for the commander in chief.  “Yes, there was a slow start, but it was a strong finish. And what became very clear through the course of the night is that Joe Biden is fighting on behalf of the American people on substance, on policy, on performance. Joe Biden is extraordinarily strong,” Harris said last month. “I’m not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I’ve been watching the last 3.5 years of performance.” KAMALA HARRIS SPENT MONTHS SHOOTING DOWN CONCERNS OVER BIDEN’S MENTAL COMPETENCY Harris earlier this year decried Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report that described Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” as nothing but “gratuitous, inaccurate and inappropriate” criticism. But the June 27 debate publicly put Biden’s mental fitness on display, sending vulnerable Democrats in Congress and the donor class into a tailspin over the viability of the aging president’s candidacy. Biden, who had been self-isolating with a reported case of COVID-19, announced on July 21 via a letter posted on X that he would no longer seek a second term and endorsed Harris as the presidential nominee.    Harris, however, spent months before the debate defending Biden’s mental competency after a series of gaffes and public trips and falls. In November, Harris was confronted at the New York Times Dealbook Summit about how former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Biden was confused and needed cue cards during debt negotiations. “I would say that age is more than a chronological fact. I spend a whole lot of time with our president, be it in the Oval Office or the Situation Room and in other places. And I can tell you, as I just mentioned, not only is he absolutely authoritative in rooms around the globe but in the Oval Office, meeting with members of Congress, meeting with leaders in industry, meeting with community leaders,” Harris responded. REPUBLICANS SAY SCHUMER MUST ACT ON VOTER PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP BILL IF DEMOCRAT ‘REALLY CARES ABOUT DEMOCRACY’ “Only one person sits behind the Resolute Desk,” she added. “I’m not lying … I’m telling … but I’m telling you a fact.” The Justice Department report by Hur released in February found Biden “willfully” retained and disclosed classified information to a ghostwriter but did not recommend criminal charges. Hur said Biden displayed “limited faculties” and described his memory as “significantly limited” during interviews with the special counsel’s office, noting the president could not remember “even within several years” when his son, Beau, died. At an event on the White House grounds dedicated to discussing gun violence, Harris insisted that “the way that the president’s demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated, gratuitous,” adding that “when it comes to the role and responsibility of a prosecutor in a situation like that, we should expect that there would be a higher level of integrity than what we saw.”  It was then that Harris described the “countless hours” she spent with Biden and the secretaries of defense and state and the leaders of the intelligence community after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists. “The president was in front of and on top of it all,” Harris told reporters in February, “asking questions and requiring that America’s military and intelligence community and diplomatic community would figure out to know how many people were dead, how many are Americans, how many hostages, is the situation stable?” “He was in front of it all, coordinating and directing leaders who are in charge of America’s national security, not to mention our allies around the globe for days and up until now months,” she said.  Fox News’ Callie Cassick and Kevin Ferris contributed to this report.

Trump rallygoer scared to attend future Trump events, despite Secret Service urging they move inside

Trump rallygoer scared to attend future Trump events, despite Secret Service urging they move inside

Following an assassination attempt on former President Trump, the Secret Service has reportedly urged the Trump campaign to reconsider future outdoor events, and one attendee of that tragic event said she may not attend another given the circumstances. Secret Service officials suggested to the Trump campaign that they no longer hold outdoor rallies, and the campaign is reportedly looking into large indoor venues, according to the Washington Post. Valerie McGregor is a Trump supporter from Plum, Pennsylvania, and her trip to nearby Butler was her first visit to see the former president. She said she was heartbroken because of what happened that day. McGregor said she is likely not the only one whose traumatic experience may prevent them from visiting another Trump venue again. TOP DEM WHO VISITED BUTLER SAYS LOCAL OFFICIALS TOLD HIM ‘WE NEED TO TALK’ MORE ABOUT SECURITY FAILURES Looking back, she said she felt firsthand the same concerns she heard voiced on local radio shows from others, including Wendy Bell and Sean Parnell, after the fact. McGregor said she did not see any surveillance drones when she was there, in one such example.  “I had heard what [the radio shows] discussed right after – and they were right,” she said. “They’re things I don’t think about because I had never been to another rally.” In that regard, McGregor said this may be her first and only visit to see the former president. “I hear that President Trump is still doing his rallies; that’s good. But you know what: I don’t know if I’ll go to another, and my husband would like to [go],” she said. “How much safer could you be – you’re at a rally with the former President of the United States?” On that Saturday in Butler, McGregor attended the rally with a friend, and her husband stayed home to watch it on TV. She said she and her friend were unable to get a seat despite arriving at the farm show grounds early. TRUMP SHOOTING: TIMELINE OF ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW GUNMAN EVADED SECURITY “We were to the right of the stage [by] about 30 feet,” McGregor said, adding she and her friend heard the shots ring out and saw hydraulic fluid begin spewing out of a nearby forklift after its pump was hit with an errant shot. At that point, she watched a speaker crash to the ground that she said was hit by the jet of hydro-fluid. “I was so excited about going to a rally – I didn’t go to any of President Trump’s rallies before the last election, and I was disappointed that I didn’t go,” she said. As for the move indoors reportedly urged by the Secret Service, McGregor said enclosed rallies offer different risks. At nearby Acrisure Stadium, the longtime home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, concert acts like Kenny Chesney and Garth Brooks routinely sell out the stadiums, she noted. “It would be more controlled if it was inside – but [Trump] draws such huge crowds,” McGregor said. “He’s so well-loved, but equally hated.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Heaven forbid something does happen, and then you have people trying to get out from inside,” she said. McGregor also said now-former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was given too long after the fact to tender her resignation. While she considered that an immediate termination would have precluded Congress from calling her to testify this week, McGregor said Cheatle should have been sent packing very soon after the security failures were identified. Calling upon her own experience working in corporate America, if someone dropped the ball in a very serious way, they would have been “out the door” immediately, she said. 

‘So-called expert bureaucrats’: Fishermen rip Sen Warren’s new plan to ‘silence’ them

‘So-called expert bureaucrats’: Fishermen rip Sen Warren’s new plan to ‘silence’ them

America’s seafood leaders are pushing back on new plans from Democrats on Capitol Hill to revive a legal doctrine that fishermen say threatens to “silence” them. On Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., led several of her Democrat colleagues in introducing the Stop Corporate Capture Act (SCCA), which she says is aimed at stopping corporations from “hijacking” the government.  The bill would codify what’s known as the Chevron doctrine – a legal theory established in the 1980s that says if a federal regulation is challenged, the courts should defer to the expertise of the agency.  The Supreme Court last month overruled that doctrine, the result of a lawsuit filed by fishermen against the government claiming that it imposed rules on their industry that Congress did not allow. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that Chevron deference “permits the Executive Branch to exercise powers not given to it.” HOW MAINE LOBSTERMEN TURNED ‘SLAP IN THE FACE’ FROM WHITE HOUSE INTO POLICY VICTORY With the new threat of the Chevron doctrine finding permanence in federal law, New England fishermen are crying foul and pointing to the recent offshore wind disaster wreaking havoc on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket as a prime example of why lawmakers should not give “expert bureaucrats” power over their industry.  “So-called expert bureaucrats approved the Vineyard Wind turbines that are falling apart in Senator Warren’s home state, spreading debris from Nantucket to Cape Cod. Fishermen have always known that offshore wind will be a disaster for our oceans. But alphabet soup agencies used Chevron deference to silence us,” Jerry Leeman, CEO of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA), told Fox News Digital.  “Without Chevron, fishermen finally have a chance to protect their jobs, heritage, communities and the marine environment from regulators and developers who are industrializing the ocean.” Vineyard Wind is a joint venture between foreign entities Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which built wind farms off the coast of Massachusetts.  Earlier this month, a blade the length of a football field snapped off a wind turbine, sending debris and shards of fiberglass into the ocean, much of which washed ashore in Nantucket. MAINE LOBSTERMEN CATCH BIG COURT VICTORY AGAINST BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S ‘EGREGIOUS’ REGULATIONS NEFSA and other groups like the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) have pushed back against the Biden administration’s offshore wind development, but so far to no avail.  Notably, Vineyard Wind is a recipient of a 30% tax break carved out by the Inflation Reduction Act, which extended and increased tax credits for wind energy projects that began construction prior to Jan. 1, 2025. The concern over the Chevron doctrine being codified in law is that fishermen like Leeman, who contend that they are the true experts in their own industry, are outweighed by government agencies that regulate them if a court challenge arises. Steve Forbes said, “Sen. Warren’s attacks on America’s small and family businesses knows no bounds. She wants to put bureaucrats back in charge of small businesses when the Supreme Court rightfully liberated them from big government.” BIDEN ADMINISTRATION BLASTED FOR ‘HYPOCRISY’ ON OFFSHORE WIND AS IT SCRAMBLES TO PROBE WHALE DEATHS “The new bill from Sen. Warren and the far-left in Congress to codify the Chevron Doctrine into law is an attempted end-run around the Supreme Court’s recent ruling reining in unaccountable federal agencies,” said Elaine Parker of the Job Creators Network Foundation.  “Sen. Warren and her band are trying to farm out their job of legislating to bureaucrats, making it easier to grow the size and scope of the federal government at the expense of Main Street,” Parker said, adding that the bill is “likely unconstitutional.”  “This [bill] shows once again that Democrats side with regulators over ordinary Americans,” she said.  Warren’s office did not return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.