Several law professors are advising President Joe Biden to disregard laws with which he disagrees and act according to his own preferences. These professors, hailing from Harvard Law School and San Francisco State University, are advocating for the president to overlook the authority of the third branch of government.
Mark Tushnet, a law professor at Harvard, and Aaron Belkin, a political scientist at SFSU, are spearheading this approach, promoting the idea of reducing the federal government from three branches to two, a path that some view as a step toward authoritarian rule.
“We urge President Biden to restrain MAGA justices immediately by announcing that if and when they issue rulings that are based on gravely mistaken interpretations of the Constitution that undermine our most fundamental commitments, the Administration will be guided by its own constitutional interpretations,” the pair of Progressive professors wrote in an open letter to President Biden.
On Wednesday, the duo, known for their advocacy of court-packing, released “An Open Letter to the Biden Administration on Popular Constitutionalism” on a blog.
“Although we continue to support expansion, the threat that MAGA justices pose is so extreme that reforms that do not require Congressional approval are needed at this time, and advocates and experts should encourage President Biden to take immediate action to limit the damage.”
Their recommendation to President Biden revolves around the concept of “Popular Constitutionalism,” which asserts that courts do not hold sole authority over interpreting the Constitution. In simpler terms, they propose that Biden has the option to disregard court rulings that he disagrees with.
Given the president’s frequent clashes with Supreme Court justices over significant decisions throughout his administration, it could potentially invalidate a substantial number of recent rulings.
“We do not believe that President Biden should simply ignore every MAGA ruling,” they added in a hedge against a future President Donald Trump using their words against them.
“The President should act when MAGA justices issue high-stakes rulings that are based on gravely mistaken constitutional interpretations.”
GWU law professor Jonathan Turley bristled at the progressive’s advice to the president in an opinion published Saturday by The Hill.
Professor Turley’s act of disregarding court rulings with which they disagreed was reminiscent of well-known segregationists who opposed Civil Rights laws.
He noted Senator James Eastland, D-Miss., argued “all the people of the South are in favor of segregation. And Supreme Court or no Supreme Court, we are going to maintain segregated schools.”
Turley highlighted that his colleague, Professor Rosa Brooks from GWU Law School, gained acclaim on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” for characterizing Americans as “slaves” to the U.S. Constitution, further asserting that the Constitution is inherently problematic.
He criticized Professors Tushnet and Belkin, labeling them as hypocritical for presenting themselves as champions of democracy while advocating for the use of unilateral executive authority to defy the courts.
“In other words, they are calling for Biden to declare himself the final arbiter of what the Constitution means and to exercise unilateral executive power without congressional approval,” Turley continued.
“He is to become a government unto himself,” the law professor said about President Biden.
