Biden Is Wrong. The Supreme Court Is Already “Politicized.”
President Biden said he won’t expand the Supreme Court because doing so would “politicize” the court in an unhealthy way. But it’s a political institution by its nature — and a disturbingly undemocratic one.
President Joe Biden announces new actions to protect borrowers after the Supreme Court struck down his student loan forgiveness plan in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on June 30, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
After Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action, President Biden told reporters that this isn’t a “normal court.” Asked what he meant that night on MSNBC, he said that this court has “done more to unravel basic rights and basic decisions than any court in recent history.”
Fair enough. But when the most powerful officeholder in the United States says something like that, it’s reasonable to ask what he plans to do about it. And in this case the answer seems to be . . . nothing.
The cost of doing nothing is high. Whatever you make of the relationship between the version of affirmative action the court just struck down and the broader goal of achieving a more equal society, this was yet another sign of the aggressiveness of the court’s right-wing majority. On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled against Biden’s student debt relief plan.
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