Why SCOTUS’ GOP supermajority may be Trump’s downfall

19 June 2024

During a campaign speech in Hollywood, California on Sunday, June 16, President Joe Biden railed against the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority and warned that if presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump defeats him in November, he will likely have a chance to appoint two more justices.

"This has never been a Court that's so far out of step," Biden — who was joined by former President Barack Obama and comedian Jimmy Kimmel — told the crowd.

Biden is hardly the only American who has a low opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court's GOP supermajority.

In 1999, a Gallup poll found that 84 percent of Americans had "a great deal," "quite a lot" or "some" confidence in the High Court. But in 2023, approval of the Court was, according to Gallup, a mere 40 percent.

In a biting article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on June 19, journalist Jill Lawrence argues that the U.S. Supreme Court's unpopularity is a major weapon for Biden to use against Trump this election year.

"The High Court's six conservative justices, half of them named by Donald Trump, could well be Joe Biden's ticket to a second term," Lawrence emphasizes. "Like Trump himself, they are a scandal-and-controversy machine, constantly renewing old furors and creating new ones. Democrats couldn't ask for better material, or more of it."

Lawrence continues, "Whether the issue is abortion, guns, or the rule of law, and pondering if presidents are like kings and, if so, how much, there's a ruling for that. Sometimes two or three. And if there isn't yet, there will be soon."

According to Lawrence, a long list of unpopular rulings has tarnished the High Court's image in recent years.

"The dramatic case that will first come to mind for most people is the Court's June 2022 Dobbs decision revoking the constitutional right to abortion access," Lawrence explains. "But there is also its Bruen decision one day earlier gutting state regulation of firearms. There is the March 2024 decision neutering the 14th Amendment that is supposed to bar insurrectionists and their enablers from running for or holding federal office."

Lawrence adds, "There is the opinion last month upholding racial gerrymandering. And there is the Court's tortured reasoning in last week's 6–3 decision to overturn a Trump-era ban on bump stocks."

Jill Lawrence's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

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