Biden pledges to name progressives to the Supreme Court, suggesting he expects vacancies | CNN Politics
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President Joe Biden promised Black voters Wednesday that he would appoint progressives to the US Supreme Court if elected to a second term, suggesting he expects vacancies on the high court over the next four years.

President Joe Biden promised Black voters Wednesday that he would appoint progressives to the US Supreme Court if elected to a second term, suggesting he expects vacancies on the high court over the next four years.

“The next president, they’re going to be able to appoint a couple justices, and I’ll be damned — if in fact we’re able to change some of the justices when they retire and put in really progressive judges like we’ve always had, tell me that won’t change your life,” he said during a campaign rally in Philadelphia.

It was as explicit a warning as Biden could offer about the stakes of the upcoming election, and a clear reminder that some of the nine justices have entered their seventies.

Clarence Thomas is 75 and Samuel Alito is 74; both are conservative and appointed by Republican presidents. Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal who was nominated by President Barack Obama, turns 70 next month.

  • xmunk
    43·
    6 months ago

    Boo RCV - we should just go parliamentary and stop direct election of the executive branch!

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      5·
      6 months ago

      We’d need a constitutional convention. Or the largest amendment we’ve ever had. RCV can be done simply by the states.

      • xmunk
        3·
        6 months ago

        Yea, if RCV is all we can get I’m not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good… and hopefully with RCV we could get better leadership… but it’d be wonderful if we could get off direct executive elections.

        • Logi@lemmy.world
          2·
          6 months ago

          Perhaps with RCV (or whatever) you can elect leadership that will allow that.

      • xmunk
        3·
        6 months ago

        The UK has shitty FPTP like we have here but their government never deadlocks. The US government can fail in a very special way where the president can be reduced to only being able to veto legislation while trying not to be impeached and it’s fucking dumb.

        We need a government that’s both representative and functional and there’s a reason why modern nations have looked at directly elected executives and parliamentary system and vastly preferred the latter.