Joe Biden is no longer running for reelection, but he’s not going away quietly, either. On Monday, he launched a broadside against the independence of a separate branch of government, demanding radical reform (read: destruction) of the Supreme Court as we’ve known it since the Founding. Vice President Kamala Harris immediately announced her support for the plan. In thrusting this attack on the independence of the judiciary into the middle of the 2024 presidential contest, Biden may think he is helping his party’s electoral fortunes. He is wrong, and he will come to regret it.
Biden launched his attack while speaking at the Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, at an event to commemorate enactment of the Civil Rights Act 60 years ago. Justifying his assault, he referred to “extreme opinions that the Supreme Court has handed down” and declared, “the Court is being used to weaponize an extreme and unchecked agenda,” thereby making absolutely clear that he’s only making his reform proposal because he isn’t happy with the way the current Court is deciding the cases before it.
After listing a series of recent Supreme Court rulings he opposed – beginning with a ruling in the 2013 case of Shelby County, and then continuing on to the 2022 Dobbs case (which overturned Roe v. Wade), and the ruling earlier this month regarding presidential immunity for official acts –........