#Biden’s proposal is a declaration that #SCOTUS is wrong about the #Constitution, that it has abused its power & influence & that it needs to be checked & balanced. He is, of course, far from the first president to do this — Abraham Lincoln & Franklin Roosevelt come to mind — but he is the first modern #Democratic president to recognize that the court as constituted is a major obstacle to the party’s ability to #govern in accordance w/its popular mandate.
In just the last term, the Roberts court has rewritten the #14thAmendment to keep Donald #Trump on the presidential ballot as well as radically expanded presidential #power in direct contravention of the history, text & structure of the #Constitution.
We have, in other words, a #corrupt & #lawless court that, led by its #conservative majority, has put itself above the constitutional system as the exclusive arbiter of constitutional meaning.
The #Constitution means whatever the #JohnRoberts court says it means, even when that meaning conflicts w/the basic principles of American #democracy.
It is against this backdrop of institutional #dysfunction & #judicial arrogance that President #Biden, fresh from his decision to leave the campaign trail in favor of his vice president, introduced his three-point package of #SupremeCourt reforms.
#law#SCOTUS#PartisanCourt#ActivistCourt#ExtremistCourt#CorruptCourt#DarkMoney#CourtReform
It is a testament to #JohnRoberts’s skill as a #politician that he is often viewed as a modest & moderate #judicial institutionalist when, in fact, he has used his position on the court to spearhead a remarkable campaign of #judicial activism. In cases like #ShelbyCountyVHolder in 2013 & the more recent #WestVirginiaVEPA, Roberts all but deployed novel constitutional doctrines (“equal state sovereignty” & the “major questions doctrine”) to achieve his preferred results.
In just the last term, the Roberts court has rewritten the #14thAmendment to keep Donald #Trump on the presidential ballot as well as radically expanded presidential #power in direct contravention of the history, text & structure of the #Constitution.
We have, in other words, a #corrupt & #lawless court that, led by its #conservative majority, has put itself above the constitutional system as the exclusive arbiter of constitutional meaning.
@pluralistic - The true, tactical significance of #Project2025. Like you, I have heard a lot about Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's #roadmap for the actions that #Trump should take if he wins the presidency. Given the #HeritageFoundation's centrality to the #American #authoritarian project, it's about as awful and frightening as you might expect https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/14/fracture-lines/#disassembly-manual#democracy #congress #constitution #courts #justice #civilliberties #government #hierarchy #wealth #policy #governance