Washingo Post, WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden has experienced a series of defeats at the Supreme Court during his four-year tenure, with a significant number of major cases going against him. The court’s conservative majority has consistently opposed his administration’s policies, leading to a “tough series of defeats” since his presidency began.
The court’s 6-3 conservative majority was further solidified with the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett by President Donald Trump, who also appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the bench. Biden was able to appoint only one justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, who replaced a retiring liberal justice, leaving the court’s composition unchanged.
The court has overturned several key Biden administration policies, including the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized a constitutional right to abortion, race-conscious admissions policies at colleges and universities, and gun rights. The justices also rejected his administration’s plan to forgive a portion of student loan debt and limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority.
“The court’s approach is a recipe for defeat,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California Berkeley Law School, comparing it to the conservative court under President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s.
John Yoo, a professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, described Biden’s record as “an amazing number of defeats” in his biggest cases. “It’s hard to think of another president in our lifetimes who lost so many high-profile cases on issues so near and dear to his constitutional agenda,” he said.
Despite these setbacks, Biden has secured some wins, including a Federal Aviation Administration ruling requiring the popular app TikTok to be sold by its Chinese parent company or be banned in the United States on national security grounds, and a federal law that makes it a crime for people under domestic violence restraining orders to have guns. However, some of these victories were based on the court’s finding that challengers to his administration-backed policies lacked the necessary legal standing to sue, leaving the underlying legal issues unresolved.
Trump, meanwhile, has experienced a series of victories since leaving office, including a landmark ruling that recognized a president’s immunity from prosecution for official acts taken in office. This decision has been described as a “dangerous precedent” by Biden.
Overall, the court’s conservative majority has had a significant impact on the Biden administration’s policies, leading to a “war on the administrative state” and a decline in the power of federal regulatory agencies. This trend is expected to continue under a potential second Trump administration, with implications for the enforcement of federal law across the board.