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.

  • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

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

    If he really worries about that, and is not just scaring people to vote for him, then he has a responsibility to enlarge the court.

      • SARGEx117@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The supreme court is supposed to be based on certain numbers, when those numbers increased the SC could have been increased, but hasn’t been.

        Basically all it would take is for the president to decide “hey this court is supposed to be bigger, because the rules it wrote for itself say so” and sign a few things and boom. Increased court size.

    • crawley@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I don’t think he’s exactly even capable of doing so. SCOTUS judges have to retire or die, and then vacant seats have to get confirmed by the Senate, and no self-respecting Republican Supreme Court justice would die while in office. Expanding the number of justices is also extremely unlikely to happen, and also, relevantly, not really in Joe’s hands.

      • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        The notable historical threat to pack the courts previously (which succeeded in moderating the court without packing) was done by a president. They don’t have unilateral authority, but they are the leader of the party. Stuff doesn’t happen unless leaders lead.

  • DandomRude@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    A system that appoints supreme constitutional judges for life and without even halfway serious democratic checks and balances seems to me the perfect recipe for disaster and corruption. But hey, I’m from Europe, so what do I know… ¯_(ツ)_/¯

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Yes but you fail to consider that some guys wrote on a paper like 250 years ago and we’ve decided that everything needs to be viewed through the lens of either “does this agree with an incredibly pedantic and stilted reading of this document” or “what would those historical dudes think about this” - whichever happens to be more politically expedient for you at the moment, but the second one tends to give you more flexibility.

      • DandomRude@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yup, I see. A bit like with the Bible and other holy books then. Even here in Europe, there are many who see the wording of those as the ultimate truth. No need to adjust anything, they say. It’s all good. It’s god’s will or whatever - if it helps their agenda, that is. Jesus, that must be frustrating.

      • Clent@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Not anymore. They are just making shit up now. The check is congress impeaching them. That will not happen if enough people demand it.

        It’ll never happen as long as republicans control either half of congress. People have been sounding the alarm on their power grabs for decades and only now are some people starting to listen.

        I expect the American experiment to fail in my lifetime.

        • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          I’m not sure that I see the American Collapse happening in my lifetime as a certainty, but I would agree that it’s a very strong possibility if we don’t get our shit together pretty fucking quick.

          • Clent@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It’s won’t collapse. We’ll become another authoritarian state.

            It’ll be isolationist so only Mexico should be worried.

            • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              Yeah if we go that route, I absolutely expect some Christian Nationalist administration to decide that it’s time to take over Mexico, which to be clear is an apocalyptically stupid idea.

              • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Some of the MAGA folks are already saying that we should bomb/invade Mexico to stop the drug cartels and immigrants. Of course, they hand-wave how horrible a war would be. They assume that Mexico would thank the US for such a great bombing and ask for more. Because MAGA.

                • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  For anyone who was downvoting the above comment: It’s absolutely a real thing that Republicans have been talking about for a while now.

                  This should concern you. Only a complete imbecile would think that conducting unilateral military action against Mexico is a good idea. We would rightly be cast in the same light as Russia vis a vis Ukraine. We would destroy any remaining semblance of geopolitical soft power we still have. We would be unambiguously turning away from even trying to be the “good guys”. We would be global pariahs, just like Russia is now, and we would deserve it.

  • ZK686@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

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

    Fixed if for you.