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.
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.
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.
Why doesn't Biden simply MURDER the Conservative Justices who are currently in Court debating about if that's ACTUALLY illegal or something totally within the President's Jurisdiction?
It's very likely the GOP will win control of the Senate, and if they do McConnell would sooner die than let Biden even consider nominating someone.
Still gonna vote for Biden though, because if Trump wins the Conservative justices will all retire at once and they'll nominate 30-year-olds to fill in. I don't want 60+ more years of a Conservative court majority!
While it's POSSIBLE there will be vacancies in the next presidential term, the two oldest, Thomas and Alito, will still be younger in 2028 than Biden is now.
So I wouldn't exactly hold my breath on Biden getting the picks.
Whoever serves from '28 to '32 will likely get to replace both Thomas and Alito, then the next two oldest are Roberts and Sotomayor.
This had better not be a “well, we waited to fill these until the election year so that we can use it to mobilize the base”.
One, because it’s terribly cynical and self serving.
Two, because it doesn’t work on progressives nearly as well as they think. It runs the risk of alienating voters because they don’t feel respected for 3.5 years out of 4.
Or he expects there to be no vacancies, giving him the option to say whatever he thinks might get him votes without ever having to follow through on his promises.
It suggests that Republican SCOTUS judges might want to retire but they aren't under any obligation to do so in the next 4 years. Unless he's ready to pull the trigger on court reforms or he's got an assassin lined up this is just another empty promise.
Not sure whether to poke at the fact that there probably won't be any vacancies or that he would actually choose a progressive considering people are resigning from his administration every week over Gaza.
On average since Washington, each Presidential term has had 2.1 SCOTUS appointments. It's not a bad expectation, statistically speaking. But it's just an average, since Biden only has one so far, and Trump got three.