President Joe Biden has consistently undermined and verbally attacked the nation’s highest court, and he was at it again Saturday posting a threatening tweet. Democrats spent the Trump years whining about an imagined “assault on democracy,” but to have one of the three co-equal branches of our government calling another illegitimate actually does strike right at the heart of our system. If Biden succeeds in causing Americans to reject the Supreme Court’s authority, it would lead to lawlessness and politicians simply doing what they want regardless of what the Constitution says.
Saturday’s incendiary missive called some justices on the court “extreme”:
Thanks, I've now reported this for threatening content and misleading information about politics/election processes.
— Becca Lower (@BeccaJLower) August 27, 2022
Note that my colleague Becca Lower has reported the “threatening content” and “misleading information” to Twitter. Don’t hold your breath for a response.
“We cannot allow an out-of-control Supreme Court and Republican elected officials push an extreme agenda that takes away freedoms and personal autonomy,” the account says. What does he mean exactly by “we can’t allow” the Supreme Court to “push an extreme agenda”? How exactly are you going to stop them from making decisions, Joe? I’d say that sounds pretty threatening. Are you going to use the nation’s military? Remove the justices forcefully from the courthouse?
We all know what “extreme agenda” he’s talking about, too. It’s Roe v Wade, which was overturned in June. Here’s the thing: that decision was not political, even if it had political ramifications. As I explained at the time, Alito’s decision was clearly based in law and the Constitution. Everyone who’s not a total partisan hack has known for years that the original Roe verdict was flawed, and that’s why Democrats have so desperately tried to keep conservatives off the court. Even the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg knew that Roe was problematic.
This isn’t the first time that Biden has questioned the legitimacy of the court. In June he said, “I think the Supreme Court has made some terrible decisions.” In July he said about the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe, “What we’re witnessing wasn’t a constitutional judgment. It was an exercise in raw political power.” As my colleague Bonchie reported, Joe even hammered the court while overseas, saying Dobbs was “outrageous,” and that it was “one thing that has been destabilizing” to the country. He’s also called SCOTUS “extremist”:
Is his continued assault changing minds? Yes. Just search “Supreme Court is illegitimate,” and you’ll be served up with hundreds of articles claiming that it’s become an “illegitimate institution.” Meanwhile, one young man got so worked up, he planned to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh—something which Biden has refused to condemn. Meanwhile, multiple protests have occurred in front of justices’ homes in violation of the law—and Biden has not criticized those acts either. In fact, his spokesperson shrugged them off by saying simply, “this is what a democracy is.”
Biden’s Twitter account has gained attention lately, as “his” tweets have become noticeably more combative and “punchy.” This could be the work of new White House hire Megan Coyne, who recently came on as deputy director of platforms in the Office of Digital Strategy. She made her mark by posting humorous tweets for a New Jersey state government account. The Washington Post glowingly reports:
…for the White House, the newly punchy tone seems to be part of a revamped strategy leading up to November’s midterm elections, with Biden increasingly attacking Republicans directly and sometimes by name. On Thursday, Biden accused the GOP of “semi-fascism” and said he could not work with “MAGA Republicans.”
The WaPo certainly seems delighted by the new strategy, but I thought all Leftists hated mean tweets from the last guy? Note that these posts come from the soon-to-be octogenarian who campaigned on unity, but is now calling his opponents semi-fascists and refusing to work with them. Nice.
What would happen if Americans lost all faith in the court, as Biden seems to be begging them to do? Democrats haven’t thought that part out yet. Constitutional Law professor Jim Oleske says:
It’s untested. We don’t know. The closest we’ve come is if Al Gore hadn’t accepted the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore. Then we would’ve had a test of that. But it would be a fundamental change to our republic.
It’s a dangerous, unethical game Joe the Uniter is playing here. In his desperate bid to get re-elected, or at least not see his party eviscerated in the midterms, he’s hell-bent on destroying one of our three branches of government. The ramifications could be felt long after he’s wandered off into the twilight.
