This article has been updated to include a statement from Curt Levey, a constitutional attorney and the president of the Committee For Justice.
On Monday, President Joe Biden gave remarks at the LBJ Presidential Library in Texas where he continued to speak out against the U.S. Supreme Court, hours after unveiling his plan to for reforms that included imposing term limits and ethics legislation on the justices. Such remarks, made eight days after Biden officially withdrew from the race, involved him attacking his opponents as he slurred his words and sputtered his remarks.
The president began by speaking about civil rights, framing President Lyndon B. Johnson as a leader in such a movement for signing the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and the Fair Housing Act during his presidency. He quickly segued into how it's on the Court to uphold such legislation.
Not only did Biden attack the Court for rulings directly related to such legislation, such as the 2013 decision on Shelby County v. Holder, but other unrelated decisions as well. This included Biden quickly expressing his outrage about abortion-related decisions, specifically with the Court overturning Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in 2022.
Throughout his speech, Biden even engaged in fearmongering about the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 for going for a supposed "onslaught attacking civil rights in America." This has become a particularly popular talking point from the Democratic Party, although they've been fact-checked at length over their claims. Biden also turned to name calling here, as he did when mentioning an "extreme MAGA movement."
As he was trying to promote his agenda items, Biden touted the amount of Supreme Court justice confirmations he's overseen, and even claimed "I have great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers laid out in our Constitution."
BIDEN: "I have great respect for our institutions," except when they do things with which I disagree — then we must tear them all down so we can remake them in our own radical ideology pic.twitter.com/1ek5nq7Kv5
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 29, 2024
That's rich. Not only has Biden openly defied the Court, including and especially on student loan debt, he's looking to completely upend the Court, even as he claims to have "great respect" for our institutions.
Further, there's Democrats in Congress who also further put their lack of respect for the separation of powers on display. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), who also chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, is probably the worst offender given that he has repeatedly berated conservatives justices and Chief Justice John Roberts even had to tell him to stay in his lane on the issue.
Sure enough, Biden also went after former and potentially future President Donald Trump, especially in the context of the Trump v. United States decision from earlier this month on presidential immunity. He quoted the dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, which has been criticized for how particularly hyperbolic and hysterical it is.
Biden didn't just reference the decision to go after Trump, but also engage in fearmongering as to how Trump v. Anderson supposedly applies to civil rights. "Folks, just imagine what a president could do, trampling civil rights and liberties, if given such immunity," he warned.
The president went for another particularly rich line from there when discussing 18-year term limits, as he claimed such a reform is necessary because we have "an extreme Court" and because the Court's being "weaponized by those seeking to carry an extreme and unchecked agenda for decades to come."
For all of his ranting and raving against the Court, and against Trump, it's Biden and his administration which is engaging in the weaponization of justice, not merely when it comes to criminal cases against Trump, but against everyday Americans, such as grandparents praying and protesting at abortion facilities.
Biden once more brought up Project 2025 in such a context. "By the way, these guys mean it," he insisted. "These guys mean it. Project 2025 is real. They mean it."
When it comes to those attacks from Biden, Curt Levey, a constitutional attorney, president of the Committee For Justice, and someone who testified before Biden’s Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court, had some thoughts.
"In his speech, President Biden opined that the Supreme Court is a threat to civil rights and is 'mired in a crisis of ethics' that has 'caused public opinion to question the Court’s fairness and independence,'" Levey mentioned, speaking about other lines from the president's speech.
"If the President were actually concerned with the public’s confidence in the Supreme Court, he would look in the mirror and curb his baseless accusations--motivated by politics and disagreement with some of the justices’ decisions--that the Court is ideologically extreme and that the ethics of the conservatives justices are compromised. And he would urge his allies to do the same," Levey offered. "But instead of commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act by engaging in a serious discussion of the Court’s role in the civil rights movement, Biden chose to pander to his progressive base by proposing Supreme Court 'reforms'--term limits and a Congressionally-imposed code of ethics--that are constitutionally dubious and which he knows have no chance of passage."
Perhaps one of the most alarming moments from Biden actually came before his speech, as he himself referenced. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has expressed opposition to such reforms, declaring them to be "dead on arrival." As Biden said to the press when he got off of Air Force One for such an event, it's Johnson who is supposedly "dead on arrival." Such remarks are as chilling as they are nonsensical.
Biden nevertheless not only reminded the audience of such a response, he also continued that line of attack. "Well, I think his thinking is 'dead on arrival,'" Biden said during the middle of his speech, though he had a particularly difficult time in getting the words out.
REPORTER: "@SpeakerJohnson says it's dead on arrival."
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 29, 2024
BIDEN: "That's what he is."
REPORTER: "That he is?"
BIDEN: "He is. Dead on arrival."pic.twitter.com/YKIWb1OItC
BIDEN: "The Republican speaker of the House says whatever he proposes is dead on arrival."
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 29, 2024
*malfunctions — reboots brain*
"Well I was thinking his thinking is dead on arrival!" pic.twitter.com/jUozugl1oJ
Biden towards the end of his speech again referenced the Civil Rights Act to close his speech as he claimed he's been "inspired" and that's what "got me involved, initially" in law and politics.
As he looked to share some stories about getting involved, Biden also looked to really fall apart from there, as he really began to have more difficulty with his words. This is despite how the speech was less than half an hour long.
Biden is sundowning.
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 29, 2024
THIS is what Kamala covered up — and she MUST answer for it. pic.twitter.com/lRSUG9q36G
"We've never fully lived up to it," Biden said to conclude his speech in part, going for a line he usually turns to when talking about such efforts and how much of a failure the United States supposedly is when it comes to living up to the founding principles.
As he left the stage, Biden did so looking weak and frail, despite how we've been told the president is supposedly fine.
Democrats (led by Kamala) spent months INSISTING Biden was just fine — even when we'd see him do things like this day after day.
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 29, 2024
Don't believe your LYING EYES, they'd say! Until one day they didn't.
These people are corrupt to the core. pic.twitter.com/5Xw43DYEKw
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