Joe Biden Highlights SCOTUS Issues And Discusses The Need To Reform The Nation's Highest Court

3 months ago

President Biden spoke about the US Supreme Court during remarks in Texas on Monday.

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Transcript

00:00We live in a different era.

00:03In recent years, extreme opinions that the Supreme Court has handed down have undermined

00:09long-established civil rights principles and protections.

00:14In 2013, the Supreme Court in Shelby County case gutted the Voting Rights Act, opening

00:20the floodgates to a wave of restrictive voting laws that have seen states across the country

00:27pass.

00:28In 2022, the Court overruled Roe v. Wade and the right to choose that had been the law

00:36of the land for 50 years, 50 years.

00:41The following year, the same court eviscerated affirmative action, which had been upheld

00:46and reaffirmed for nearly 50 years as well.

00:50And now there's an extreme movement and agenda called Project 2025.

00:56Well, by the way, they're serious, man.

01:01They're planning another onslaught attacking civil rights in America.

01:05For example, Project 2025 calls aggressively attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion

01:11all across all aspects of American life.

01:15This extreme MAGA movement even proposes to end birthright citizenship.

01:20That's how far they've come.

01:22End birthright citizenship, which if you're born in America, you're an American citizen.

01:28That's how extreme these guys are.

01:30This issue and so many other civil rights that Americans take for granted are likely

01:35to come before the court in the years to come.

01:38And most recently and most shockingly, the Supreme Court established in Trump v. the

01:43United States a dangerous precedent.

01:47They ruled, as you know, that the president of the United States has immunity for potential

01:55crimes he may have committed while in office, immunity.

02:01This nation was founded on the principle there are no kings in America.

02:05Each of us is equal before the law.

02:11No one is above the law.

02:13And for all practical purposes, the court's decision almost certainly means that the president

02:17can violate their oath, flout our laws, and face no consequences.

02:23Here's what Justice Sotomayor, Supreme Court Justice, wrote in her dissent.

02:27I quote, under the majority's reasoning, the president now will be insulated from criminal

02:32prosecution, orders a Navy SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival, immune, organizes

02:41a military coup to hold on to power, immune, takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon, immune.

02:49In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law.

02:56Just what Justice Sotomayor wrote in her dissent.

03:00Folks, just imagine what a president could do in trampling civil rights and liberties

03:05given such immunity.

03:08The court's being used to weaponize an extreme and unchecked agenda.

03:13This decision is a total affront to the basic expectations we have for those who wield the

03:19power in this nation, that they are expected to be wholly accountable under the law.

03:27The president is no longer constrained by the law, and only limits on abuse of power

03:32will be self-imposed by the president alone.

03:35That's a fundamentally flawed view and a fundamentally flawed principle, a dangerous principle.

03:42On top of its extreme decisions, the court is mired in a crisis of ethics.

03:49These scandals involving the justices have caused public opinion to question the court's

03:54fairness and independence that are essential to faithfully carrying out its mission of

04:00equal justice under the law.

04:02For example, there are documented reports of a decades-long effort to reshape the judiciary,

04:10including a Supreme Court backed by shadow special interests that also support Project

04:142025.

04:17Undisclosed gift to justice is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from wealthy benefactors

04:22who have interests before the very court they're contributing to, conflicts of interest from

04:28those connected to January 6th insurrectionists, and a blatant attack on nominating and confirming

04:35justices of the court itself.

04:37Do you all remember when Justice Scalia died in February of 2016?

04:42And the Republicans blocked the president's nomination, President Obama's nomination,

04:48to fill that vacancy for nearly a year by making up an entirely new standard that there

04:55be no confirmations of the court during an election year.

04:59But then when Justice Ginsburg died in 2020, Republicans rushed through the president's

05:08Trump's nominee at the very same time votes are being cast in an election that Trump would

05:13lose.

05:14It's outrageous.

05:15It's outrageous.

05:16I know I don't look it, but I served in the Senate for 36 years, including as chairman

05:28and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.

05:31I've been told that I've overseen more Supreme Court nominations as senator, vice president,

05:37and president than anyone in history, anyone alive today, I should say.

Joe Biden Highlights SCOTUS Issues And Discusses The Need To Reform The Nation's Highest Court

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