President Biden knocked the Supreme Court over the weekend, warning at a fundraiser that the next president could appoint two Supreme Court justices.
The suggestion that the next president elected in November will have a major impact on the court has become a recent 2024 talking point for Mr. Biden, who appeared alongside former President Barack Obama.
At Saturday’s Los Angeles event, which raised $28 million, according to USA Today, Mr. Biden said “one of the scariest parts” of a potential second term for former President Donald Trump is his ability to put more justices on the high court.
During his first term, Mr. Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices.
“He’s going to appoint two more [justices] flying flags upside down,” Mr. Biden said, according to Politico.
That was a shot at Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., whom Democrats have criticized for flying two flags at his homes — one of an upside-down American flag following the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol and “An Appeal to Heaven” flag that critics claim is linked to the “Stop the Steal” movement.
SEE ALSO: Biden campaign leans into Trump’s status as a convicted criminal
Mr. Biden said the Supreme Court is “out of kilter,” speaking critically of the justices’ move in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that gave women a national right to abortion.
In that decision two years ago, the high court in an ideologically divided 6-3 ruling sent the issue of abortion back to the states.
Since then, more than a dozen states have moved to ban or restrict the procedure.
“There has never been a court that’s so far out of step,” Mr. Biden said. “You had [Justice] Clarence Thomas talking about how there were other things we should consider, including in vitro fertilizations.”
Mr. Obama, meanwhile, said the makeup of the court is done through elections.
“What we’re seeing now is a byproduct of 2016,” he said. “Hopefully we have learned our lesson. Because these elections matter.”
Mr. Trump was credited with winning over some conservative voters during the 2016 campaign by releasing a list of candidates that he would consider appointing to the Supreme Court.
After Mr. Trump won the election, he followed through by appointing conservative Justices Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. All of them were in the court’s majority overturning Roe v. Wade.
Mr. Biden has appointed, as he promised, the nation’s first Black female justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.