Democrats are accusing President Trump of undermining judicial independence by not following court judgments in immigration cases. Put aside that, as of yet, it is far from clear that any judicial orders have been violated. Even under the worst assumptions, what Trump is doing to the independence of the federal courts is far less serious than what the Biden-Harris Administration tried to do to the independence of the federal courts.
On April 9, 2021, President Biden created a "Commission" to examine "reforming" the "membership" of the U.S. Supreme Court. This action alone is a more serious threat to judicial independence and to the rule of law than are any of the actions with respect to the courts taken so far by President Trump. Imagine how the Democrats would react if President Trump were faced with a liberal Supreme Court majority and therefore created a Commission to examine "reforming" the "membership" of the Supreme Court. Democrats would say fascism was around the corner.
Among the ideas the Biden Commission seriously considered were imposing 18-year term limits on Supreme Court justices by passing a statute. This is an idea which I once favored for policy reasons, but which I concluded decades ago in a law review article could only be done by a constitutional amendment. I have subsequently concluded that 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices are also a bad idea, as a matter of policy, because every two-term president would get four Supreme Court appointments, which is almost always enough power to change the jurisprudential balance on the Supreme Court.
