Feature: How Biden Should Spend His Final Weeks in Office
Dec. 15, 2024
The days are dwindling to a precious few before President Biden relinquishes his tenancy at the White House to Donald Trump. Four years ago, in his inaugural address, Mr. Biden promised to “press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility.” The peril remains, but so do the possibilities.
Last week he announced that he was commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoning 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes. Eleven days earlier, in a decision widely criticized, Mr. Biden pardoned his son Hunter, who was awaiting sentencing on gun possession and income tax charges.
There is still much the president can do before he repairs to Delaware. He can spare federal death row prisoners from the fate some almost certainly will face when Mr. Trump returns. He can make the Equal Rights Amendment a reality after decades of efforts to enshrine it in the Constitution. He can safeguard magnificent landscapes that might otherwise be desecrated. He can protect undocumented immigrants facing deportation, alleviate crushing student debt facing millions of Americans and protect the reproductive rights of women. And more.
New York Times Opinion contributors share what they hope President Biden will accomplish during his remaining time in office.
Yes, time is running out for Mr. Biden’s presidency, but he can still repair, restore, heal and build, as he promised he would do on the January day four years ago when he took the oath of office. Here are a few suggestions:
Commute the sentences of the 40 federal inmates on death row
By Martin Luther King III
By commuting all federal death sentences to life, Mr. Biden would move America, meaningfully, in the direction of racial reconciliation and equal justice. In 2021 he became the first president to openly oppose capital punishment. Since his inauguration, the federal government has not carried out a single execution.
If Mr. Biden does not exercise his constitutional authority to commute the sentences of everyone on federal death row, we will surely see another spate of deeply troubling executions as we did in the first Trump administration. A majority of those executed — 12 men and one woman — were people of color; at least one was convicted by an all-white jury and there was evidence of racial bias in a number of cases; several had presented evidence of intellectual disabilities or severe mental illnesses. The same problems were features in the cases of many of the 40 men on federal death row today, more than half of whom are people of color.
My father taught that the death penalty multiplies hate, violence and vengeance. Commuting federal death sentences would be a decisive shift toward love, peace and mercy.
Martin Luther King III, an American human rights activist, is the eldest son of the civil rights leaders Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.
Pardon people convicted of nonviolent marijuana offenses
By Rick Steves
Mr. Biden has taken historic steps to address America’s outdated and failed federal marijuana policies. In October 2022 he pardoned thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law, and last week, he granted clemency to around 1,500 people, including some nonviolent drug offenders. His administration has proposed a rule change that would reclassify marijuana — which currently shares the same classification as heroin — as a drug with a lower potential for abuse. But he can still do more.
Gallup polls have consistently shown that a significant majority of Americans support marijuana legalization. And on the campaign trail, Mr. Biden said that “no one should be in jail because of marijuana.” But his October 2022 pardons applied only to people convicted of marijuana possession, not those convicted of selling or distributing marijuana. In the final weeks of his term, he should pardon all Americans who have federal convictions for nonviolent marijuana-related crimes, and he should commute the sentences of every single person who is sitting in federal prison today for those offenses. It’s the right thing to do.
Rick Steves is a travel writer and the host of the public television show “Rick Steves’ Europe.” He is also a member of the board of NORML, which is working to legalize marijuana in the United States.
Make the Equal Rights Amendment part of the Constitution
By Kirsten Gillibrand
With Republicans set to take unified control of government, Americans are facing the further degradation of reproductive freedom.
Fortunately, Mr. Biden has the power to enshrine reproductive rights in the Constitution right now. He can direct the national archivist to certify and publish the Equal Rights Amendment. This would mean that the amendment has been officially ratified and that the archivist has declared it part of the Constitution.
