Joe Biden worries that the “extreme” US supreme court, dominated by rightwing justices, cannot be relied upon to uphold the rule of law.

“I worry,” the president told ProPublica in interview published on Sunday. “Because I know that if the other team, the Maga Republicans, win, they don’t want to uphold the rule of law.”

“Maga” is shorthand for “Make America great again”, Donald Trump’s campaign slogan. Trump faces 91 criminal charges and assorted civil threats but nonetheless dominates Republican polling for the nomination to face Biden in a presidential rematch next year.

In four years in the White House, Trump nominated and saw installed three conservative justices, tilting the court 6-3 to the right. That court has delivered significant victories for conservatives, including the removal of the right to abortion and major rulings on gun control, affirmative action and other issues.

The new court term, which starts on Tuesday, could see further such rulings on matters including government environmental and financial regulation.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      49 months ago

      I’m talking about Roosevelt as a model for Biden threatening to pack the court. This reply doesn’t make sense.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        39 months ago

        Those threats only worked because the party was sane. These days we have nothing more the terrorists calling themselves the gop.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          19 months ago

          What? There were like 16 Senate Republicans total in Roosevelt’s time. It had nothing to do with sane Republicans coming around. The threats worked because Roosevelt and his policies were incredibly popular and if the court didn’t stop blocking them the court packing bill likely would have passed.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            19 months ago

            I’m saying the opposing party. And yes fdr used the bully pulpit well. But there were still rational people in office. Today we have a party that thinks the election was stolen because… Reasons.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      19 months ago

      There’s no limit to how many supreme Court justices can be active at a time. Biden could have nominated more. Getting them approved is the hard part.