President Biden said the current Supreme Court has done more to “unravel basic rights” than any court in recent history.
President Biden said Thursday the current Supreme Court has done “more to unravel basic rights and basic decisions than any court in recent history,” but he stopped short of calling for overhauling or expanding the court, as some in his party demand.
“I think they may do too much harm,” Biden said in an interview with MSNBC, just hours after the Supreme Court handed down an opinion ending affirmative action in college admissions. “But I think if we start the process of trying to expand the court, we’re going to blow this up in a way that may be unhealthy.”
In the 18-minute interview with host Nicolle Wallace, the president said some of the justices may have begun to recognize that court decisions that are too out-of-step with most Americans may delegitimize the institution.
“Some in the court are beginning to realize that their legitimacy is being questioned in ways that it hasn’t,” Biden said.
The interview came during a busy stretch for Biden, who announced his reelection bid in late April and has pinballed between fundraisers this week ahead of a fundraising deadline at the end of this month.
In the 2020 campaign, some Democrats argued for expanding the court, limiting its power or imposing term limits on the justices. Many were infuriated that after Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, Senate Republicans refused to let President Barack Obama replace him, holding it open until President Donald Trump could fill the seat.
Biden, who prides himself on respecting American institutions, has steadfastly rejected such proposals. But on Thursday, he made clear his frustration with the current Supreme Court, telling reporters several hours before the MSNBC interview, “This is not a normal court” in response to a question about whether the court had gone “rogue.
