GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Tuesday, July 30, where we’re scratching our heads at Spirit First Class. BIDEN’S SCOTUS DREAMS LAND IN THE SENATE President Joe Biden is making a big push for changes to the Supreme Court — but Senate Democrats are taking a more deliberate approach to altering things at the nation's high court. Some are readily endorsing the president’s bold proposals, while others are still considering the plans to establish term limits for justices alongside an enforceable code of ethics. Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he will “study” the president’s “detailed suggestion” and that he agrees with Biden that “the nine people serving on the U.S. Supreme Court should not be treated differently than any other federal judges when it comes to transparency and accountability for their actions.” But senators in favor of Supreme Court changes are still leaning on a signature SCOTUS ethics bill that doesn’t have the votes needed to make it a reality. Durbin referred to passage of the legislation as “a remote possibility.” But no Republicans are open to supporting the bill, and it would not survive a filibuster. Senate Democrats’ high court ethics bill would establish more stringent rules for gift and travel disclosure, clarify recusal rules and allow lower court judges to review ethics complaints submitted by the public. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who has advocated for stronger ethics practices at the high court, is urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to bring the bill to the floor, alongside Durbin. “We're very excited about them because they align perfectly with my two bills,” he said Tuesday. But Whitehouse acknowledged there is not any clear timeline for putting those bills on the floor. Schumer told reporters Tuesday that he is “looking at a whole lot of things” to address the Supreme Court, but made no commitment to act on legislation. Other Judiciary Committee Democrats aren’t endorsing quite yet. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), for example, is “still reviewing the details.” — Katherine Tully-McManus and Anthony Adragna BIPARTISAN CONDEMNATION OF PITTSBURGH ANTISEMITISM There’s bipartisan outrage over a series of antisemitic vandalism incidents in a Pittsburgh neighborhood that was the scene of a 2018 mass shooting. “It’s horrific,” Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) told Inside Congress. “It’s another reminder that antisemitism has been on the rise. It was on the rise exponentially before Oct. 7 and since Oct. 7 it just got that much worse. There’s too many horrific examples of it. So we have to condemn it categorically and I want to pass my Antisemitism Awareness Act,” Casey added, referencing the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. A bipartisan group of Jewish House members released a statement condemning the incident. “Now is the time for all of us to stand together and make clear that hate crimes, antisemitism, bigotry, and appeals to violence have absolutely no place in our society,” the group said, adding the targeting of the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, where the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre occurred, was “particularly heartbreaking.” The office of Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who is currently isolating with Covid, did not respond to a request for comment on the incident. — Anthony Adragna
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