(NewsWorthy.news) – Democratic President Joe Biden has promised to reform the United States Supreme Court with liberal justices, should he win his reelection campaign.
On Wednesday, May 29, the sitting president attended a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania geared for “black voters for Biden-Harris.” There, he expressed confidence that there would be multiple retired justices in the nation’s highest court during the next presidential term.
During the rally, Biden noted that the next commander-in-chief will have the opportunity to “appoint a couple justices.” He added that, if he were in the White House for a second term, he would “change” a few of those who currently sit on the bench and insert “really progressive judges.” He said the updates would take place as justices enter retirement and told rally attendees that they would “change your life.”
Currently, conservative justices hold a 6-3 majority in the Supreme Court. Veteran justices appointed by former president George W. Bush include Samuel Alito and John Roberts, the sitting chief justice. Previously, the former president’s father, George H.W. Bush, appointed long-time associate justice Clarence Thomas.
Two of the three liberal justices, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayer, were appointed by former president Barack Obama while the third, Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined their ranks in 2022 after being appointed by Biden. Former president Donald Trump—who is the presumptive GOP nominee for the 2024 presidential election—appointed Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett to the bench during his four years in the White House.
Justices Alito, Thomas, and Sotomayer are nearing retirement age, with the two men already in their seventies and their female colleague almost 70. A retirement from any long-term justice holds the potential to reshape the landscape of America’s highest court for many years.
Biden’s promises to nominate progressive justices to replace potential retirees on the bench are reminiscent of Trump’s efforts in 2016, at which time he promised to replace the late justice Antonin Scalia with another conservative who would overturn the so-called right to abortion established in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
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