Liberal profs urge Biden to defy ‘mistaken’ rulings by ‘MAGA’ Supreme Court justices

Two prominent professors are urging President Biden to thwart US Supreme Court “MAGA’’ justices by instituting an “alternative intepretation’’ to some rulings — a proposal critics claim would be dictatorship.

Harvard Law School professor Mark Tushnet and San Francisco State University political scientist Aaron Belkin last week penned “An Open Letter to the Biden Administration on Popular Constitutionalism” to demand Biden to take action against what he has already deemed “not a normal court” because of some of its controversial recent rulings.

“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 wrote.

While the professors say they’ve advocated expanding the Supreme Court “as a necessary strategy for restoring democracy,” they countered that greater action is needed, since “the threat that MAGA justices pose is so extreme that reforms that do not require Constitutional approval are needed at this time.”

Tushnet and Belkin offered their version of “popular constitutionalism” — which would give both citizens and Biden a bigger role in interpreting and enforcing the Constitution — as a solution.

“In practice, a President who disagrees with a court’s interpretation of the Constitution should offer and then follow an alternative interpretation. If voters disagree with the President’s interpretation, they can express their views at the ballot box,” the profs said.

Tushnet and Belkin noted that Biden “should act when MAGA justices issue high-stakes rulings that are based on gravely mistaken constitutional interpretations,” pointing out the high court’s recent anti-affirmative action ruling — a decision Biden criticized as “not normal.”

“President Biden could declare that the Court’s recent decision in the affirmative action cases applies only to selective institutions of higher education and that the Administration will continue to pursue affirmative action in every other context vigorously because it believes that the Court’s interpretation of the Constitution is egregiously wrong,” Tushnet and Belkin wrote.

The liberal professors theorized that Biden could counter the “MAGA justices” who “rule consistently to undermine democracy and to curtail fundamental rights” by offering an alternative constitutional interpretation that would better benefit democracy. “MAGA” refers to the former President Donald Trump slogan “Make America Great Again.”

But George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley warned against this interpretation of the Constitution in an op-ed he wrote for The Hill.

“What is most striking about these professors is how they continue to claim they are defenders of democracy, yet seek to use unilateral executive authority to defy the courts and, in cases like the tuition forgiveness and affirmative action, the majority of the public,” Turley wrote.

“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. He is to become a government unto himself,” he said.

“You are not incorrect if you noticed that their description of “popular constitutionalism” sounds exactly like dictatorship,” Turley added.

Other critics included former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard W. Painter, who tweeted: “This is nonsense.

“@POTUS is not ignoring Supreme Court orders and nobody with any influence is telling him to. But he has every right to appoint justices and propose legislation to fix the Court. Congress can start by giving them an ethics code,” Painter said.

Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk argued on Twitter that the letter’s authors were only incensed because the Supreme Court won’t rule exactly how they want.

“Tushnet and professors like him are all a petty, vicious psychopaths at heart, bitter that they don’t get to run the world, and constantly looking for a paper-thin excuse to dispense with the Constitution whenever it suits them,” Kirk wrote in the scathing tweet.

Republican former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee cheekly responded about Tushnet: “Insurrection! Put him in jail! Call Lizzy Cheney to fire up another round of hearings!”