President Biden’s latest call to overhaul the Supreme Court and his warning that “extremism is undermining public confidence” in the bench, is part of an ongoing pattern of institutional criticism, some legal experts have said.
Biden called Monday for term limits and ethics guardrails for the justices to “prevent abuse of presidential power and restore faith in the Supreme Court.”
Over the past few decades, Democrats have clamored for institutional change, usually after facing political headwinds from a decision.
Another example followed the 2016 election, when Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts called for the abolition of the electoral college.
BIDEN’S SCOTUS CRITIQUES LARGELY UNPRECEDENTED, EXPERTS SAY
The Supreme Court and President Biden (Getty Images)
Warren argued in 2019 during a campaign stop in Jackson, Mississippi, that non-swing states are not often visited during the general election, and their voters are often overlooked.
At the same time, other Democrats were livid at the fact former presidental candidate Hillary Clinton scored many more popular votes than Donald Trump, but Trump won by 77 electors.
In 2013, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid, D-Nev., invoked the “nuclear option” to eliminate the 60-vote threshold for Senate-vetted nominees.
At the time, Sen. Mitch McConnell warned Reid, “You’ll regret this, and you may regret this a lot sooner than you think.”
Within a few years, McConnell’s premonition came to pass as Democrats erupted at the Kentucky Republican after he utilized Reid’s precedent to extend the “option” to Supreme Court nominees and…
