Joe Biden's Supreme Court Reforms Backed by Donald Trump Supporters

Supporters of former President Donald Trump have previously expressed support for Supreme Court term limits like President Joe Biden has proposed, according to a poll.

Biden outlined his vision for Supreme Court reform in an opinion piece for The Washington Post published on Monday, which included the introduction of term limits for justices.

Biden noted that the U.S. is the only major constitutional democracy that gives lifetime seats to its high court. He said that he supported a system in which the president would appoint a justice every two years to spend 18 years in active service on the Supreme Court.

Polling conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for Newsweek on June 11-12 asked 1,500 eligible voters whether they would support the introduction of term limits for Supreme Court justices.

Fifty-eight percent of all surveyed said they would support term limits, while just 13 percent said they opposed it. The rest said they either didn't know or neither supported nor opposed it.

Among respondents who voted for Biden in 2020, 69 percent said they supported term limits, while 6 percent opposed them.

Among those who voted for Trump in 2020, 54 percent supported term limits, while 20 percent opposed them.

U.S. Supreme Court (front row L-R): Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas; Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts; Associate Justices Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan; (back row L-R) Associate Justices Amy Coney... U.S. Supreme Court (front row L-R): Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas; Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts; Associate Justices Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan; (back row L-R) Associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson on October 7, 2022, in Washington, D.C. Polling has found supporters of former President Donald Trump have previously supported term limits on Supreme Court justices. More Alex Wong/Getty Images

When asked if they supported lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court, 40 percent of all respondents said they opposed it while 30 percent said they supported it.

The polling also asked respondents if they support the president having the responsibility to name Supreme Court nominees. Forty-seven percent of all respondents said they do, compared to 17 percent who said they don't.

In his article for The Washington Post, Biden outlined "bold reforms" to restore public trust in the Supreme Court, one of them being introducing term limits.

Under current rules, justices serve for life or until they choose to retire. Justice Clarence Thomas is the longest-serving of the current justices, having been on the bench for nearly 33 years.

Biden said that introducing term limits would ensure that the court's membership changes with some regularity, making nominations more predictable and less arbitrary.

During his term, Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices, fundamentally reshaping the nine-member court for years to come.

By comparison, former President Barack Obama appointed two justices in his two terms, and Biden appointed one in his single term.

Along with the introduction of term limits for Supreme Court justices, Biden also proposed a binding code of conduct for the court and ensuring that former presidents have no immunity for crimes committed while in office.

Newsweek reached out to the White House for more information about the proposed reforms via email outside of regular working hours.