For all his bluster about safeguarding the American system, President Biden expends a great deal of energy undermining it.
In the coming days, Biden will reportedly endorse a sweeping “reform” agenda for the Supreme Court by calling for term limits and a new code of ethics.
This is the culmination of an outrageous, long-winded left-wing attack on the judicial branch that should offend Americans of all political stripes.
When he presents them to the public, Biden will doubtlessly describe these measures as a way of depoliticizing the court.
But in truth, their mere proposal is meant to have the exact opposite effect.
For a long time, the left had its agenda rubber-stamped and even implemented by the high court.
Democrats became so accustomed to this arrangement that they came to understand this as the court’s role.
It makes some sense, then, that they have taken the last decade or so — during which the Supreme Court’s originalist majority has righted the institution’s course — so personally.
They’re resentful that they must now make arguments on behalf of their extreme, maximally permissive position on abortion.
They’re resentful that unconstitutional vote-buying schemes like Biden’s student loan debt transfer — not “forgiveness” — program will no longer be tolerated.
And they’re resentful that the court will not adopt their own absurdly arbitrary conception of the executive branch to simultaneously enable the progressive regulatory agenda and damn Donald Trump.
This resentment has given way to a smear campaign that would make even the slimiest political hatchetman blush.
ProPublica has all but abandoned other journalistic pursuits to scrutinize Clarence Thomas and his friendships while ignoring the liberal justices’ connections to the rich and powerful.
The New York Times has a crack team dedicated to documenting each and every flag Samuel Alito’s wife has ever delighted in (good luck, by the way).
And elected Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), have publicly targeted Chief Justice John Roberts in an effort to apply political pressure to the apolitical branch.
Biden’s forthcoming proposal is just another crescendo in this extended tantrum.
Term limits are not a solution to any alleged structural issue with the court, but a reaction to the surplus of talented young originalists appointed by Trump during his first term, as well as those who might be tapped for the honor if he retakes the White House this fall.
Biden will pretend otherwise now, but he has already admitted to these petty, partisan motivations.
“Just imagine if he [Trump] has two more appointments on that, what that means, forever,” he mused in a revealing interview with BET News.
“The next president is likely to have two new Supreme Court nominees — two more,” asserted Biden at a fundraiser last month. “I think it is one of the scariest parts.”
Democrats have accused the court of making a series of power grabs in recent years.
Nothing could be further from the truth; its overturning of Roe v. Wade, for example, was an acknowledgment of the judiciary’s inability to make policy.
If anything, setting term limits would tempt justices to think in the short term and seek to “make the most” of their limited time on the bench, while robbing the court of the wisdom and perspective that comes with being a longstanding member of it.
And as for an ethics code, there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that any of the sitting members of the originalist bloc have reached decisions for corrupt reasons.
The insidious purpose behind a proposal for imposing one on the Supreme Court is to mislead the public into thinking there is evidence of such corruption.
It’s a solution not just in search of a problem, but intended to fabricate one.
Informed Americans will recognize Biden’s impending attack on the court for what it is: a desperate effort to put his political coalition back together.
While Trump is reaching out to moderates and even Democratic constituencies by moderating on abortion and courting Big Labor from his catbird seat, Biden is trying — and failing — to convince his own party that he’s still their best bet.
Thus this belligerent “Supreme Court reform” package and his harebrained call for coercive rent control legislation.
Central to Biden’s case for re-election is his submission that Trump represents a unique threat to democracy.
But Biden himself has spent his presidency doing more than threatening it.
Mercifully, the Supreme Court has been there to stand in the breach.