AUSTIN, Texas – President Joe Biden visited Austin on Monday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The president addressed a packed auditorium at the LBJ Presidential Library. During his speech on the transformative legislation, Biden also addressed possible pivotal changes to the United States Supreme Court.
Below are the five takeaways from his address:
- Biden emphasized that the work to fully end discrimination continues.
- He pressed that the integrity of the law rests in the hands of those who sit on the bench and that they must be without reproach.
- The Office of the President is not and cannot be treated or thought of as a king.
- The trust of the nation must be restored in the Supreme Court.
- The Civil Rights Act isn’t a moment back in time but a fundamental principle of freedom that must evolve with every American generation.
Biden, who is no longer on the campaign trail, spoke out for the rule of law and democratic principles. All the while, he warned about the threat he sees if Republican Donald Trump returns to the White House.
“No one is above the law,” Biden said.
Biden followed his denunciations of Trump with a mix of nostalgia for his early days in politics during the era of Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson.
It’s a story he’s told before about how he became a public defender and was cornered by Delaware leaders to run for the U.S. Senate. But it’s taken on a new resonance as he stares down the final six months of his political career.
“Because I got engaged like a Iot of you do ... you get engaged, and you want to change things,” he said.
The setting carried a special resonance. Biden spoke at the library dedicated to Johnson, the last president who, like him, opted against seeking reelection.
Biden also used his speech to call for changes to the Supreme Court that include term limits and an enforceable ethics code for justices, as well as a constitutional amendment that would limit presidential immunity. But his proposal is unlikely to clear a Republican House, leaving Biden to take a symbolic stand to the causes to which he had devoted his time in public office.
Read more about his remarks here.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.