Of moratoriums and backfires

Politico observes that President Biden’s "audacious move to assuage liberals progressives by extending a pandemic-related moratorium on evictions" could backfire in two ways, both of which lie outside the admonitory, Imperious Presidency argument I made earlier today.

The first is obvious. Biden's candid words that a White House-ordered moratorium will likely be ruled unconstitutional are also likely to be thrown back at him by the Supreme Court, as a federal judge did last month to President Obama, who said in 2010: "There's a limit to the discretion that I can show [DACA] because I am obliged to execute the law. I can’t just make the laws up by myself." Last month, in invalidating Obama's DACA program, District Judge Andrew Hanen "threw Obama’s words back at him," writes Politico. "President Obama, before DACA was implemented, agreed with this underlying premise," wrote Hanen.

The much bigger headache for Biden will come when progressives intensify their demand that the uncompassionate Supreme Court be expanded in size, a political quagmire the president just as intensely has tried to avert. (Think FDR.) "It will be a powerful addition to the progressive bill of particulars against this court and it could well accelerate the demands for court-packing," says historian and former presidential (Clinton) speechwriter Jeff Shesol.

Here, though, is the backlashing kicker for Biden, as outlined by former Obama Justice Department spokesman and Court-reform advocate, Brian Fallon. "I hope that progressives will put as much attention on the inevitable Supreme Court ruling swatting this down as they did on Biden the last few days. I hope that all the energy and compassion for people who stand to suffer if the moratorium was not continued will remain when the Supreme Court becomes the villain instead of Joe Biden."

What are the chances that the Supreme Court — not Biden — will become progressives' reigning villain as the president persists in averting the politically lethal quicksand of court-packing?

I'd wager the chances approach zero. And I'd collect a huge payout.

Comments

[Peter G]

Alas they, by which I mean our far left friends, have declared this a victory for (checking the numbers) all five of them. The leader of this movement, or more correctly, the person who sat on the steps, Cori Bush, can be seen today triumphantly declaring that anything less than defunding the police is unacceptable. She even went so far as to declare that, having received death threats, she is prepared to fund her own security even if it costs two hundred thousand dollars. Not sure what anybody else who doesn't the money to afford private security is supposed to do. Presumably not having the value of Cori Bush they don't matter.

I apologize for any grammatical mistakes in any of my posts. This is one of those days.