President Biden says SCOTUS is ‘advocacy group’ and not very ‘even handed’

United States President Joe Biden said this week that the US Supreme Court in its current state is “more of an advocacy group than it is even handed.”

Speaking to a crowd at a rally for Delaware Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester (D), Biden highlighted the Supreme Court as a top reason Democrats need to make a good showing in the November midterms.

“So, I view this off-year election as one of the most important elections that I’ve been engaged in, because a lot can change because the institutions have changed,” he said. “The Supreme Court is more of an advocacy group these days than it is even handed.”

The president continued, “You don’t want the political branches telling you what the law is, and you don’t want public opinion to be the guide about what the appropriate decision is.”

Biden has repeatedly criticized the Supreme Court for its overturning of Roe v Wade in late June, calling it a “sad day” and “an exercise in raw political power.” Biden said in a September speech, “The court now practically dares the women of America to go to the ballot box and restore the very rights they’ve just taken away.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated the president’s commitment to protecting reproductive rights, telling reporters on Wednesday, “[Biden]’s expressed his deep concern that this was an extreme and radical decision based on throwing out many decades of precedent. We’ve got to remember, this was almost 50 years of a precedent that we saw the Supreme Court overturn.”

The Supreme Court’s new term began last week, and is expected to bring some landmark rulings on issues like voting rights, freedom of speech, and fairness in college admissions.