“CLOSE TO ZERO”
Legal expert Steven Schwinn warned that Biden had a “close to zero” chance of getting the plan through.
But Biden was probably trying to “raise public consciousness” and “introduce the Supreme Court as an election issue,” Schwinn, a law professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, told AFP.
The Supreme Court, with a 6-3 conservative majority of justices who currently serve for life, plays an outsize role in determining the lives of ordinary Americans from everything from reproductive health to the environment.
It is packed with three judges appointed while Trump was president from 2017 to 2021 and Democrats have warned that with a second term he would be able to name even more.
Biden had previously resisted calls to overhaul the court but has changed his mind after it dealt several blows to his policies in recent years.
The court stunned the world in 2022 when it overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that had underpinned the federal right to abortion. At least 20 states have now brought in full or partial abortion bans.
It has rolled back the power of federal agencies, blocked Biden’s signature student debt forgiveness plan, and partially ruled in early July in favour of Trump’s immunity claims.
