The claim: Biden ordered DOJ to arrest six Supreme Court justices
A July 4 Threads post ( direct link , archive link ) claims President Joe Biden ordered the Department of Justice to take legal action against members of the Supreme Court.
"In Official Capacity, Biden Orders DOJ To Arrest Six Supreme Court Justices Of SCOTUS," reads text within the post. "They will be charged with Corruption and Anti-American Activities."
The post garnered more than 600 likes in six days. Similar versions of the claim were shared on Threads and Instagram .
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Our rating: False
There's no evidence Biden issued such an order.
Claim of DOJ arrest order is baseless
The Supreme Court ruled on July 1 that any "official acts" taken by a president are protected , potentially limiting which acts former President Donald Trump could be charged for in his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Biden criticized the ruling, labeling it a "dangerous precedent" and a "terrible disservice" to the American people.
There's no evidence Biden ordered the arrest of the six justices that voted in favor of the ruling, however.
Biden hasn't made any statements about such a monumental move, nor are there any credible reports of him doing so. The post doesn't provide any evidence to back up the claim either.
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Michael Dorf , a law professor at Cornell Law School, told USA TODAY the president's authority over the Department of Justice doesn't typically function in this way.
"The president has very, very substantial indirect authority, which is almost all run through the power to fire the attorney general," Dorf said, referencing Trump's firing of Jeff Sessions in 2018.
He said the president could theoretically order the attorney general to make arrests and fire the attorney general if they refused to do so, as President Richard Nixon did during the Saturday Night Massacre , but this isn't the norm. Dorf said there is an "unwritten rule" that presidents don't take part in individual decisions about the department's arrests.
Victoria Nourse , a Georgetown Law professor and former attorney for the White House and Department of Justice, told USA TODAY something similar.
"First no president – a sane one – would do this," Nourse said via email. "Second, if the president were to order the attorney general to do this, I expect the attorney general would resign. This is what happened when Nixon tried to use the Justice Department to further his burglary of Watergate."
Concerning the supposed charges brought up in the post, Dorf and Nourse both said "anti-American activity" is not a legitimate legal term.
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
PolitiFact also debunked the claim.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No, Biden didn't order arrest of Supreme Court justices | Fact check
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