Biden’s proposed shakeup of the U.S. Supreme Court comes after justices ruled 6-3 last month that government officials can accept gifts after performing an official act. Credit: Shutterstock / Steven Frame

Warning that the nation risks sliding into dictatorship without new checks and balances, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert threw his support behind President Joe Biden’s plan to impose sweeping changes on the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Whenever those seeking a dictatorship are looking to gain more control over governmental decisions, it has everything to do with that leader enriching themselves through the corruption of contracts and pass-through businesses fronts that enrich that leader,” Calvert said in a statement.

On Monday, Biden announced proposed changes to the nation’s highest court, which include limiting justices to 18-year terms and letting a sitting president appoint a justice every two years. The president unveiled the plan during an appearance at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, saying reforms are needed to restore public confidence in the increasingly “extreme” court.

Biden’s proposal also includes legislation requiring justices to disclose gifts, to refrain from public political activity and to recuse themselves from cases in which they or a spouse have conflicts of interest.

The suggested shakeup comes after last month’s Snyder v. United States decision, in which justices ruled 6-3 that government officials can accept “gratuities” after preforming an official act. Some political analysts have compared the ruling to legalizing bribery.

Biden’s announcement also follows revelations that conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, who’s spent 32 years on the bench, accepted more than$2.4 million in “gifts” between 2004 and 2023.

In his statement, Calvert encouraged other local officials to express support for Biden’s proposal, which he said is essential to preserving democracy.

“The Supreme Court’s many recent actions have been built upon many other decisions that have eroded the protection of our citizens from despots,” Calvert said. “Decisions like Citizens United and Snyder v. United States undermine public trust and suggest a leniency towards corruption that cannot be unchecked in a democratic society that wishes not to slide down the road of kleptocracy.”

U.S. Reps. Greg Casar and Joaquin Castro, Democrats who represent parts of San Antonio in Congress, have also expressed support for Biden’s restructuring of the Supreme Court.

Even so, the president’s proposal is unlikely to get past the Republican-controlled U.S. House.

“It is telling that Democrats want to change the system that has guided our nation since its founding simply because they disagree with some of the Court’s recent decision,” House Majority Leader Mike Johnson said in a statement to Fox News. “This dangerous gambit of the Biden-Harris Administration is dead on arrival in the House.”

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This article appears in Best of San Antonio 2024.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...