Joe Biden creates commission to study Supreme Court reform

Joe Biden is considering reform of the United States Supreme Court.

REUTERS / Michael A. McCoy

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Joe Biden is considering reform of the United States Supreme Court.

The American president has announced the creation of a commission of experts to study this possibility.

This would include increasing the number of judges who sit in the highest judicial body in the country.

The court is currently largely dominated by conservative judges.

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Donald Trump has appointed three of the nine judges who currently sit on the Supreme Court, reports

 our correspondent in Washington,

Anne Corpet

.

The first was chosen shortly after his accession to the White House, because the Senate, at the time with a Republican majority, had refused to consider the candidacy proposed by Barack Obama six months from the end of his mandate.

This episode infuriated the Democrats and revived the debate on the reform of the highest judicial body in the country.

Judges are appointed for life and the conservative camp holds a two-thirds majority that is unlikely to change for years.

The only possibility for the Democrats to modify this balance of power which is unfavorable to them, is to limit the mandate of the judges or to increase the number of them: it is on this that will floor the commission set up by Joe Biden.

He was involved in it during the campaign.

The experts have 180 days to make their conclusions.

But any modification of the statute of the wise will have to be validated by the Congress.

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See also: The Supreme Court, a major stake in the US presidential election

The last attempt to reform the Supreme Court dates back to the 1930s. President Franklin D. Roosevelt then sought in vain to increase the number of judges after a series of judgments unfavorable to some of his measures.

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