A ‘Normal’ Supreme Court?

Shocking is the word for President Biden’s suggestion that “this is not a normal court.” It was his reaction to the finding of the Nine that Harvard and the University of North Carolina have been violating the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause in the way they conducted their admissions programs. We haven’t seen such contempt for the court from a sitting president for as long as we can remember. This is a moment to be marked. It would be one thing if this were an accidental utterance of a president whose own party thinks that he is too old to carry out his duties. But the contempt — the presumption of irregularity — seems to be pervading the whole Democratic Party these days. Heretofore the most shocking example was President Obama ridiculing the court in the course of delivering his State of the Union message in 2010. Mr. Obama’s words precipitated booing and jeering and catcalls from the Democrats as the members of the Supreme Court sat in humiliation in the well of the House. At the time we suggested that they should sit out Mr. Obama’s next address. Now, Mr. Obama’s vice president, when asked if this court is “rogue” mulled it over for what seemed like an eternity before settling on his evaluation of abnormality. So much for the respect owed to a co-equal branch. Before Mr. Biden slurred the high court on his way out the door, he twice repeated “We cannot let this decision be the last word,” despite the Supreme Court’s ruling being binding everywhere in America. Mr. Biden also “proposed a new standard by which colleges take into account the obstacles a student has overcome,” Politico said, and “directed the Education Department to examine admissions processes,” endangering practices like legacy preference.To our ears Mr. Biden sounds like he, and no doubt many Democrats, not the least those on college campuses, have notions of complying with neither the spirit of the Supreme Court’s ruling — a return to what Chief Justice Roberts called constitutional “transcendence” — nor its letter. Harvard’s response, too, could have been set to a score of gnashing teeth, though at least it did state forthrightly that it would comply with the Court’s decision.It’s a moment to remember that President Biden, as well as every member of Congress, every governor and state legislator, and all the judges of the federal and state courts, are bound by oath or affirmation to the Constitution. That Constitution includes the 14th Amendment. The president, in particular, is commanded by the Constitution to take care that the laws are faithfully executed and is given no power to pronounce on their normality.What, after all, is a “normal” Supreme Court, anyhow? It’s not like any other court. Was the court under Chief Justice Marshall, which established judicial review, normal? Was the Plessy court normal? Or was the Brown court, which reversed Plessy, normal? How is the Roberts court, which ruled against Harvard, somehow abnormal? What a divisive suggestion from a president who claims to want to bring the country back to normal.

A ‘Normal’ Supreme Court?

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