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.

  • bostonbananarama@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    In all fairness, saying “working with Republicans won’t work” isn’t specifying what the Dems could have done to have their nominee seated, which is what the commenter asked for.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Oh, thought we were talking about Biden…

      Back when Obama was in office he should have said:

      If republicans won’t hold a vote, I’ll appoint who I want

      And then just fucking did it. Republicans don’t just do what they’re allowed, they do everything they can.

      That’s why their winning. They don’t spend half a term discussing if they can do something, they do it and hope it sticks.

      You can say that’s not how a government should work, and I’d agree. But when 2 people are playing a game without a ref, you better cheat just as hard or you’ll never win. Because regardless of if we always play explicitly by the rules or not, they’re gonna keep cheating.

      We can piss and moan all day about how it shouldn’t be like this, but the reality is that it is like this.

      • Baron Von J@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Oh, thought we were talking about Biden…

        We are. You asserted that as Obama’s VP “[Biden] was supposed to be the one that got that SC pick thru.” And you’ve been challenged to state how you think Biden could have done that.

        Your suggestion what you think Obama should have done belies a misunderstanding of the process. Obama did appoint Merrick Garland. The Constitution says the appointee has to be confirmed by the Senate before they can be seated. The Court isn’t going to end-run around that and seat an unconfirmed judge.

        The lesson to have learned is not to cheat harder than them, it’s that we need to update the rule book to prevent this type of obstruction in the future.