Biden says court reform needed to protect civil rights in speech marking landmark desegregation law

President Joe Biden on Monday said his proposal to reform the nation’s highest court is in keeping with the tradition of expanding and protecting civil rights and a justified response to the current Supreme Court’s effort to roll back a whole host of rights enjoyed by Americans and plans laid out in Donald Trump’s “Project 2025.”

Speaking at the Lyndon Johnson presidential library at an event to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act that ended legal segregation in America, Biden said Republicans are “planning another onslaught” of attacks against civil rights to follow up on the end of the federal right to abortion and a restrictions on enforcement of the Voting Rights Act signed into law by Johnson nearly six decades ago.

He also slammed the high court for its’ recent decision granting presidents broad immunity for official acts in response to Trump’s effort to avoid criminal charges stemming from his efforts to unlawfully remain in office after losing the 2020 election.

“The court is being used to weaponize an extreme and unchecked agenda,” he said, adding that the immunity ruling in Trump v United States was “a total affront to the basic expectations we have for those who wield the power in this nation.”

“That’s a fundamentally flawed view and a fundamentally flawed principle, a dangerous principle,” he said.

Continuing, Biden also cited the “crisis of ethics” personified by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, both of whom have refused to recuse themselves from cases brought by interests funded by wealthy donors who have gifted them significant personal financial benefits.

“These scandals involving the justices have caused public opinion to question the court’s fairness and independence that are