As we all learned in civics class in high school (before they were teaching how to become transgender and having drag queens for entertainment), there are three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial.
The idea of the Founding Fathers, seeking to build a balanced system, was that each branch could check the others. Congress could pass a bill, the president could veto it, then Congress could vote to override. And the Supreme Court could step in and void the whole thing.
While the executive and legislative branches are often adversarial — especially when they’re not controlled by the same party — the Supreme Court has long been held above the others. Its job is simply to answer this question: Does an action by the president or Congress adhere to the Constitution?
Back in 1972, Americans put great faith in the highest court in the land, with 66% saying they had “trust and confidence” in the branch, according to Gallup. That rose to 80% by 1999 and held steady for a decade but began to drop in 2009 as President Barack Obama boldly bashed the court — down to 76% in 2009, and 53% by 2015.
Americans’ confidence in the court rose to 68% while President Donald Trump took office, but as the mainstream media repeatedly slammed his nominees — at one point alleging Justice Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a girl back in high school — that trust plunged to 54%.
Now, with President Joe Biden in office, confidence in the Supreme Court stands at less than half of Americans, 47%.
That is due in large part to Biden endlessly ripping the court as political — and he’s on a desperate tear now in the waning days of the campaigns before Election Day on November 8.
“I view this, 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 at a fundraiser for Democrats on Tuesday.
“The Supreme Court is more of an advocacy group these days than it is a — evenhanded about it,” he said.
The executive’s attack on the judicial branch comes after the court struck down the constitutional right to abortion and expanded gun rights.
Chief Justice John Roberts blasted the politicization of the court at a September conference for judges and lawyers. “Simply because people disagree with an opinion is not a basis for questioning the legitimacy of the court,” he said, according to Bloomberg Law.
“The [Court’s] decisions have always been publicly criticized,” Roberts said, adding it is a “mistake” to view those criticisms as doubting the Court’s legitimacy as long as the Court does its job — which is “to say what the law is.”
“If the court doesn’t retain its legitimate function of interpreting the Constitution, I’m not sure who would take up that mantle,” he said. “You don’t want the political branches telling you what the law is. And you don’t want public opinion to be the guide of what the appropriate decision is.”
But that’s just what Biden is doing, questioning the legitimacy of the judicial branch — and stoking distrust in the American public.
Thank God the Founders were far smarter than our current president.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.