More clarity would be helpful. Frankly, it’s confusing for Biden to make the norm-busting argument on the filibuster but not on court-packing. On July 8, Biden lashed out at “an out-of-control Supreme Court, working in conjunction with the extremist elements of the Republican Party, to take away freedoms and our personal autonomy.” If the Court is out of control, why not tame it by diluting the power of the activist judges?

In fact, Biden can square his beliefs on the filibuster and the Court’s composition. As I argued in May, once you can breezily change Court composition on a partisan basis, you no longer have an independent judiciary. Therefore, “fundamental rights cherished by progressives would never be guaranteed to last past each rightward political pendulum swing.” In other words, court-packing doesn’t secure reproductive freedom. Over the long term, it only locks us in our current predicament, where our rights are subject to the whims of the electorate. But since Biden has yet to make such an argument, he looks less like a stout defender of an independent judiciary and more like a timid politician.One can understand why Biden doesn’t want a fight over court-packing, preferring to focus on measures on which Democrats can agree. But the issue is quietly feeding dissension anyway. Democratic consensus on a post-Dobbs strategy is unrealistic at this point. But Biden can at least make it clear that he believes his approach will best protect abortion rights and that he is not afraid to do what he thinks is right.