Joe Biden: ‘The Constitution Is Always Evolving Slightly’

US President Joe Biden makes a statement to the press before a meeting about the upcoming
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Charlie Spiering

President Joe Biden met with Senate Judiciary leaders on Tuesday, reminding them that the United States Constitution was “always evolving” in his public remarks at the meeting.

“You know there’s always a renewed national debate every time we nominate, any president nominates a justice, because the Constitution is always evolving slightly,” Biden said, referring to his upcoming choice of a nominee to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court.

Biden met with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and spoke briefly to reporters as the meeting began.

“I’m serious when I say it, that I want the advice from the Senate as well as the consent on who the nominee should be,” he said.

Biden spoke on the phone with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell about the Supreme Court on Tuesday, according to a spokesman for the senator from Kentucky.

The president acknowledged there were different judicial schools of thought on the issue.

“This is not a static issue, it flows back and forth,” he said.

The president ignored all questions from reporters after his finished his remarks, grinning as the press was escorted from the room.

Constitutional attorney Ken Klukowski, who served in the Trump White House and Justice Department, responded:

President Biden’s claim that the Constitution evolves contradicts the reason America has a written Constitution. Justice Antonin Scalia famously explained our Constitution is in writing because written words do not change over time. When the American people decide change is warranted, they amend the Constitution through their elected leaders, not have it imposed on them by unelected judges.

The president previously reaffirmed his campaign promise to choose a black woman to serve on the Supreme Court but did not comment on the controversy surrounding his decision at the top of the meeting.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) described Biden’s criteria for nominating a black woman as “racial discrimination.”

“Racial discrimination is wrong. Period, full stop. One of the most depressing things about Democrats today, they’re very comfortable discriminating based on race,” Cruz said.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.