President Biden called Monday for legislation to bring major changes to the Supreme Court, saying its “extreme opinions” intrude on Americans’ freedoms and necessitate new guardrails such as term limits for justices and an enforceable code of ethics.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who quickly became the Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee after Mr. Biden bowed out of the race, said she was completely onboard with the overhaul to fix a “clear crisis of confidence” with the high court’s conservative majority.

In a speech in Texas, Mr. Biden ticked off a litany of decisions by the Supreme Court that he and Ms. Harris disagreed with, depicting the justices as out-of-control ideologues bent on distorting the law to their conservative ideology. Among the decisions Mr. Biden cited were the ruling granting presidents broad immunity and overturning Roe v. Wade.

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“In recent years, extreme opinions that the Supreme Court has handed down have undermined long-established civil rights principles and protections,” Mr. Biden said. 

He said he expects even more bad decisions to come from the court if his proposed changes are not implemented. 

“So many other civil rights that Americans take for granted are likely to come before the court in the years to come,” he said.

The proposal, however, was more political than practical. It has no chance of advancing in the narrowly divided Congress but will serve as a rallying cry for Democratic candidates for both chambers.

House Speaker Mike Johnson accused Mr. Biden of trying to “delegitimize” the court.

“President Biden’s proposal to radically overhaul the U.S. Supreme Court would tilt the balance of power and erode not only the rule of law, but the American people’s faith in our system of justice,” Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said.

“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 decisions,” he said. “This dangerous gambit of the Biden-Harris administration is dead on arrival in the House.”

Mr. Biden delivered the remarks at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. The event was scheduled earlier this month but had been postponed after an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee.

“We have certainly needed reforms to restore trust in the court, preserve the system of checks and balances that are vital to our democracy,” Mr. Biden said, comparing his Supreme Court overhaul to the struggle for Civil Rights.

Mr. Biden, 81, argued that lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court give presidents undue influence decades after their term has ended. He has proposed a system in which a president would appoint a justice every two years to spend 18 years on the bench.

He also proposed a code of conduct that would require justices to disclose gifts, retain from public or political activities, and recuse themselves from cases in which their spouses or others have financial conflicts of interest.

The high court has been targeted by Democrats and their allies in the mainstream news media since a conservative 6-3 majority was appointed under President Trump.

A Marquette University poll in May revealed the approval rating for the Supreme Court was at 39%, its second lowest since 2020. 

A spokesperson from the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Mr. Biden championed a Supreme Court committee when he first took office to reenvision the Supreme Court, which issued its report in 2021, but the president has done little with the committee’s recommendations until now.

In an op-ed in The Washington Post, Mr. Biden declared his “great respect for our institutions and separation of powers” but said that “what is happening now is not normal.”

The justices split ideologically earlier this month, ruling that presidents enjoy absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken under their core presidential functions, presumed immunity for all official acts, and no immunity for nonofficial acts.

The challenge was brought by Mr. Trump seeking immunity from prosecution in the election fraud case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

The ruling frustrated liberals as the decision delayed the election fraud case and other cases pending against the former president.

The left also was outraged that the high court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that made abortion a constitutional right.

Most recently, Democrats such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez moved to impeach Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. They also have pushed for a mandatory ethics code on the high court after reports surfaced critical of the two Republican appointees.

Justice Thomas and Justice Alito have been accused in a series of articles of taking luxury trips with billionaires and not recusing from cases related to the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol because they previously expressed political support for Mr. Trump.

Other Democratic lawmakers have pushed for the Justice Department to investigate Justice Thomas.

• Staff writer Mallory Wilson contributed to this report.