Top Democrats have no plans to investigate reports that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flew an upside-down American flag outside his home after the 2020 election. And Joe Biden has no desire to even talk about it.
Amid growing demands from the base of the party to call out the actions of several conservative justices and embrace reforms of the court, both the president and the White House have stayed mum.
Biden has publicly warned that Republicans are undermining democratic norms and threatening its institutions. But he is reluctant to extend that argument to the judicial branch, aides say, fearful it could be cast as politically motivated and undermine his broader effort to portray himself as a champion for strengthening democratic institutions. They believe it’s crucial to maintain a clear contrast with Donald Trump, who has readily attacked an independent judiciary for political gain.
“The central pushback should come from the legislative branch, and not the executive branch,” said Anthony Coley, a former senior official in the Biden Justice Department, arguing that Congress has wide-ranging investigatory authority. “That’s the right place where we should be seeing […]
I feel bad for Joe Biden. It’s gotta be tough trying to run a world wide empire, and then pretend to defend Democracy at home. The problem is, that any true reforms he wants to institute to the structure will ultimately dis-empower the Democrats as by definition it will bring the politically homeless into the system. Once you can’t rely on the voting for the lesser of two evils as your strategy and you have to compete against others with real ideas the Democrats are in trouble. Why? Because the contradictions between the needs of empire and the needs of the people rise to the surface and can no longer be hidden.