Biden still won't nuke the court. But he is upping his criticism of it.

[JoeOtterbein]

Politico

The president remains staid compared to some of his fellow Democrats. But his rhetoric is getting sharper.

By HOLLY OTTERBEIN and ZACH MONTELLARO

06/30/2023 04:40 PM EDT

Joe Biden has long resisted calls from his party to go full blast on the Supreme Court. After rulings this week that upended Democratic priorities, he’s getting closer but still isn’t ready to pull the trigger.

Following Thursday’s Supreme Court rulings that eviscerated affirmative action in college admissions, the president took several swipes at the court in terms notably hostile for him. The current court, he told reporters, was not “normal.” Later, he would tell MSNBC that its “value system is different.”

The dual responses did not match the brimstone and fury that came from elsewhere in the Democratic Party, where lawmakers called for a drastic overhaul of the nation’s top court in light of the affirmative action ruling. And after the court ruled against his executive action granting student loan relief, he knocked the decision but didn’t go off on the court like other high-ranking Democrats.

Still, the responses did move Biden incrementally closer to his party’s base, even pleasing some of the progressive activists who have pushed him to adopt hardline changes to the court — and who will be a key part of any successful coalition for him in the 2024 presidential election.

snip

more at link

[ColinC]

1. It's kinda strange the focus on whether he wants to or not when it's clear he won't have the votes

The question of whether he would “nuke it” shouldn’t come until a bill passes the senate and House first.

[rso]

2. RSO

No point “nuking” anything now when it’s impossible to do with the rethugs controlling the House and the lack of votes to eliminate the filibuster in the Senate.

[dalton99a]

3. Silence is consent.

[tirebiter]

4. Step One

Take back the House.

[PSPS]

5. He "won't?" The fact is that he "can't" even if he wants to. Kremlin Kaucus and minority-rule Senate

Senators representing as little as 11% of the population can block any legislation. We have a de-facto minority-rule government.

[lapucelle]

6. The Senate bill to expand the Supreme Court has 0 co-sponsors.

ZERO.

If the Supreme Court is to be expanded, it's Congress's job to pass legislation. Congress doesn't appear to have the political will, and it could be that they are more than happy to hide behind President Biden while he takes all the heat that the issue is generating.

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S.1616 - Judiciary Act of 2023

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1616/committees?s=1&r=48

When the same bill was introduced in in 2021, it had 2 co-sponsors.
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/117/s1141

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An identical bill in the House ( H.R.3422 -Judiciary Act of 2023) has 62 co-sponsors

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3422/cosponsors

When the same bill was introduced in in 2021, it had 59 co-sponsors.
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/117/hr2584

[lapucelle]

7. The president doesn't have the power to nuke the Court. Congress does.

Article III of the Constitution establishes the federal judiciary. Article III, Section I states that "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." Although the Constitution establishes the Supreme Court, it permits Congress to decide how to organize it.

Congress first exercised this power in the Judiciary Act of 1789. This Act created a Supreme Court with six justices. It also established the lower federal court system.

https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/about-educational-outreach/activity-resources/about

====================================================================================

The Judiciary Act of 1789, officially titled "An Act to Establish the Judicial Courts of the United States," was signed into law by President George Washington on September 24, 1789. Article III of the Constitution established a Supreme Court, but left to Congress the authority to create lower federal courts as needed. Principally authored by Senator Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, the Judiciary Act of 1789 established the structure and jurisdiction of the federal court system and created the position of attorney general. Although amended throughout the years by Congress, the basic outline of the federal court system established by the First Congress remains largely intact today.

https://www.loc.gov/rr/program//bib/ourdocs/judiciary.html