President Joe Biden promised Black voters Wednesday that he would appoint progressives to the US Supreme Court if elected to a second term, suggesting he expects vacancies on the high court over the next four years.
“The next president, they’re going to be able to appoint a couple justices, and I’ll be damned — if in fact we’re able to change some of the justices when they retire and put in really progressive judges like we’ve always had, tell me that won’t change your life,” he said during a campaign rally in Philadelphia.
It was as explicit a warning as Biden could offer about the stakes of the upcoming election, and a clear reminder that some of the nine justices have entered their seventies.
Clarence Thomas is 75 and Samuel Alito is 74; both are conservative and appointed by Republican presidents. Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal who was nominated by President Barack Obama, turns 70 next month.
Biden’s going to need everyone’s help. Turn the Senate and the House super Blue. Even if you hate Biden because of Israeli support, vote for your Rep and Senator that can deal with this corruption. Add to the bench until the traitors Thomas and Alito become irrelevant. Revise the number of Senate and House seats.
Even if you hate Biden because of Israeli support,
Trump said that “he (Trump) fully support’s Israel’s Gaza genocide.”
Anything Biden can do, Trump can (and would) do worse.
Having been around awhile, it’s so weird that people are trying to make the case that a republican presidency could be a good thing for… just about any country in the middle east. Not saying that any party is going to spend much time on it, but it’s just a weird stretch.
Nobody thinks Trump will be good for the Middle East. They are just trying to pressure Biden to actually change his policy. The idea is he’ll change course if he sees it’s not popular and could threaten his election. I say publically it’ll make a difference because I don’t want Biden to support a genocide and it’s the only tool I have, but I doubt it will. I’m sure they’re all like me and live in a blue state, which means we’re useless for the electoral college. He needs to try to get purple states.
The craziest thing to me are those further leftists threatening to abandon Biden and let Trump walk in.
I mean, they can complain and oppose the democrats all they want but they should also never ever forget that today’s GOP is just the latest incarnation of the leftist’s longtime fascist enemy. Keeping them from power is and always has been a top priority.
I think that the majority of those are either accelerationists and/or state/political actors. Accelerationists soundly believe that the ends justify the means and think, despite a clear lack of solid evidence (and contrary evidence ex. Spain), that making things worse will force people to act to make things better. Mass repression and genocide of LGBTQ+ and POC are acceptable losses to reach Utopia… despite that literally never being the outcome at any point in recorded human history.
People keep claiming this, but never actually specify how Trump could possibly be worse than full-on support for genocide. Biden is 100% for the genocide, he has proved this and has put zero restrictions or conditions on Israel’s far-right regime.
What we’re seeing in Gaza under Biden will be the exact same thing we see under Trump.
This is not the argument neolibs want to be making at this time.
Yeah why would people just assume it will be worse with Muslim ban Donald who says “finish the job” and “deport the protesters?” Silly geese.
Even if you hate Biden because of Israeli support
i.e. don’t be a single-issue voter.
I hate most of the Democratic party. I fear the Republican party. So yeah I’ll be holding my nose and voting D.
That would be a decent protest. Have all the frustrated D voters wear a clothespin on their nose when they go to vote for the lesser evil.
Could actually get more people off the couch. Frustrated progressive voters would want to increase the ratio of “nose plug voters” to more effectively send their message to Biden while also helping kick out the Republicans.
I’ll be counting on you as a Canadian :)
It’s easy to fall into a defeatist attitude with how fucked up everything is, but change starts with a belief that things can be changed.
I just want the GOP to get absolutely pummeled for once so we can move the overton window back in the right direction. No I don’t like the dems. Yes I will vote for them every time as they represent the closest to what I want.
And theres only one party that has outlawed RCV in certain areas. We aren’t getting RCV without 2 things:
-Primary moderates and elect progressive Democrats at every level we can -A Democratic supermajority in Congress
Not sure what you mean by outlaw, but there are definitely democratic politicians who have shot down RCV on their ballots.
BillyWitchDoctor.com more comfortable… with chicken
ARISE! ARISE CHICKEN!
STAR, score, or approval! Not sure why people are obsessed with ranked, they must love curing ballots and being prevented from tallying districts individually?
100% would rather have ranked over FPTP, just to be clear. FPTP is toxic garbage.
Boo RCV - we should just go parliamentary and stop direct election of the executive branch!
We’d need a constitutional convention. Or the largest amendment we’ve ever had. RCV can be done simply by the states.
You have a list of senators and house reps that will keep Biden and potentially Trump in check?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Congressional_Progressive_Caucus
In terms of which progressive candidates are running to beat incumbents that varies from state to state.
Actually progressive or “biden is the most progressive president in recent US history” progressive? I’ll take either over the alternative, but I’d love it if it was more than former than the latter.
If he promises to let Bernie Sanders pick them then I bet he’d gain whole percentage points in polls.
At least he’s talking about the views of a justice he might pick, rather than what race and sex they’re going to be as though that’s the most important criteria.
Yes, but he’s also shown himself willing to say anything to get support and votes. He had a lot of big progressive talk during his campaign when he was against Sanders, but then dropped that facade pretty much within the first few months and started giving out corporate handjobs.
The fact that Alito lives in a suburb near some random out of work actress and the worst his wife has experienced is unpleasant signs shows we are the most peaceful human beings as citizens regarding their politicians.
“Just as soon as the court decides that the President is immune from prosecution, I expect there will be six vacancies soon after.” wink
He should pull an FDR and try to get the court expanded to 12.
11 or 13. You don’t do even numbers on the SC so there aren’t voting ties.
13 makes the most sense. There are 13 circuits, why not 13 Supreme Court justices?
…and the district judges themselves elect/appoint their representatives to SCotUS. Get political appointees out of the top bench, I’ll take an unelected meritocracy over cronyism and patronage any day.
Yeah agreed. I never quite understood FDRs thinking on putting an even number of people in the court. We have so many 5-4 decisions now an even court would be chaos.
Yes. But that rarely happens (usually just because of health issues). There are very few decisions that have been made where all the members didn’t weigh in. When even votes have happened the lower court ruling will stand as is. Which is particularly bad when you have places like the 5th circuit trying their best to fascism.
13 is a better number, it matches the number of Federal Appelate Courts.
If Democrats manage to take both houses of Congress and the Presidency, I would advocate for immediately passing a law to increase the size of the SC to 13, effective for the start of the SC’s 2026 term.
Then, Democrats and Republicans should go to work to enact a Constitutional Amendment for term limits on the SC. Republicans would finally have incentive to do it quickly, or else Biden would name 4 young Liberals to the SC who will be there 40+ years without term limits.
also 13 original colonies… 13 stripes on the flag.
some magahead: so that means 1.2…3…4…7 republicans… and 1…2…6 confederates?
Hey, some of us smart people can’t do that basic math either 😭
(In my case, calculus and ADHD combined powers to make me useless with actual numbers, real and imaginary, lol)
I think a better solution should tie SC seats to the number of federal district courts. That way, should the number grow in the future, SC seats will be added automatically
If I’m not mistaken, Biden could add seats if he wanted to, so could any president. I think no one wants to do it because then the other party would add more as well.
I wish he would. The only thing stopping him, ironically, is his fear of appearing partisan (and angering “moderate” republicans, if they even exist anymore), despite the fact that that’s exactly what this would be attempting to remedy.
I’d love to be wrong, but he’ll never do it. He’s barely even willing to talk about the supreme court’s corruption and blatant bias. I think he’s allergic to that much institutional change.
He called Trump semi-fascist in 2022 and backed off since. Biden does not push the limits of any power he wields.
You’ll note there has been an endless amount of arguments about Biden’s limitations to his ability and power to effect change, but never that he is pushed up against those limits.
Biden was most popular when he was fighting for Green New Deal and BBB. But his inability to whip his party into voting for the platform the Democratic party ran on was disappointing and he has never recovered.
He also implied he would be a one-term president and turn the reins over to someone younger. I’m so fucking sick of old, white men!
