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When BRIAN FALLON co-founded the liberal judicial advocacy group Demand Justice in 2018, he set out to establish a counterweight to decades of conservative investment in judicial advocacy and to shake up Democratic complacency about the federal courts.

Five years later, Fallon is stepping down from his position as executive director of the organization. West Wing Playbook caught up with Fallon to reflect on his time leading Demand Justice and to chat about President JOE BIDEN’s approach to the courts. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Why are you stepping down?

Our aspiration for the organization was that it would be around for the long haul and that it would not just be a Trump-era pop up group. We’ve run this organization with a campaign-style pace. Passing the baton to somebody else that has fresh legs and can continue operating at a campaign-like speed is a good, healthy way to ensure that it can continue to be impactful.

What do you view as Biden’s biggest success with the courts? 

On nominations, it’s been an unmitigated success story. And I think that goes to the fact that he’s had two MVP-level players on this issue in the first two-and-a-half years of the administration. Having Ron Klain in there as the chief of staff was a godsend. The other person was Paige Herwig, White House senior counsel, who was doing all the blocking and tackling day-to-day on identifying judicial candidates. 

Both of them have left the White House. Does that mean you’ve lost your biggest allies?

Both chief of staff Jeff Zients and White House counsel Stuart Delery are really sharp people and have communicated their commitment to continuing to prioritize judicial nominations. 

The work has just become harder. We’re a little bit the victims of our own success. We’ve successfully nominated so many people in states represented by Democratic senators that we’re running out of vacancies in those places. To the extent that Biden wants to catch Trump in terms of the overall number of judges confirmed, the roadblock that he’s encountering is the blue slip in the Senate.

What will ultimately happen to blue slips?

I think it’s going to eventually die. But I’m concerned that its death is not going to be fast enough for Biden to benefit from it. 

What about Biden’s approach to court reform? 

We always think that the White House could be doing more. The president has a very old school institutionalist-minded approach to the Supreme Court, where he doesn’t want to actively be seen as reducing public confidence, even if the court deserves it. 

Is that a mistake especially as public trust in the Supreme Court is cratering?

They’re making the choice for high-minded reasons about wanting to preserve trust in government and not wanting to be seen as participating in a food fight. They also think politically it’s unnecessary to directly participate in the conversation criticizing the court. They sense that the backlash is happening on its own and that Biden would lose some of his mojo as the protector of institutions and the adult in the room. 

Why do you think Biden’s approval rating isn’t better considering you think his record is so solid?

Incumbent presidents after their first year or so are always going to live somewhere in the low 40s to mid 40s, approval rating wise. The country is just so polarized and our system is set up to be skeptical and questioning of whoever is in power. There’s this ‘the grass is always greener’ mentality among the public. So to me, it’s not worrisome. 

You’ve been considered both an establishment Democratic flack and a Trump-era progressive. Which did you like more?

Well, I think that the two areas are converging. The party in the coming years is bound to become younger, more progressive, sharper and willing to throw more elbows tactically. There’s more of a mindset that we need to be a little bit bolder in ideas that we’re supporting and more brash in how willing we are to fight for those ideas.

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Which president’s death was the only one in presidential history not to be officially recognized in Washington?

(Answer at bottom.)

If it’s Friday, it’s cartoon day! This one is by DREW SHENEMAN. Our very own MATT WUERKER publishes a carousel of cartoons from all over the country.

Drew Sheneman

[INSERT YOUR HUNTER HUNTED JOKE HERE]: It was shaping up to be another sleepy summer Friday — until Attorney General MERRICK GARLAND made a surprise announcement that he had granted special counsel status to DAVID WEISS, the federal prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings for the past five years.

The decision is likely to shadow his father’s reelection campaign and add fuel to a storyline many Republicans view as key to the president’s political downfall. Yet, the announcement Friday seemed to please no one, our JONATHAN LEMIRE and HOLLY OTTERBEIN report. Aides close to Biden were frustrated by what they saw as the result of a GOP pressure campaign. And Republicans also didn’t seem happy by the special counsel appointment — even though many had called for exactly that.

BLUE SHOOTS OF OPTIMISM: The Biden campaign believes that voter enthusiasm about abortion rights could provide an opportunity to expand its 2024 map, Holly and Jon also report. Coming off the heels of a win for reproductive rights advocates in Ohio, Biden’s team thinks that states such as North Carolina — a state that recently enacted a 12-week ban and which the president lost by slightly more than one percentage point in 2020 — could be a pickup for Democrats. Ohio, too, is now on the radar, though that state is seen more as a pipe dream.

TALKING TO THE FEDS: Biden’s attorneys have been negotiating with the office of ROBERT HUR, the special counsel tasked with investigating the president’s handling of classified documents, over terms about how Biden would be interviewed, NBC News’ MONICA ALBA and CAROL LEE report. Both sides are hammering out details on where the interview would take place and what questions and topics would be introduced. The probe is now in its eighth month. Most of the documents were discovered in November at a D.C. office Biden used and at his home in Delaware.

SIMON SUES: Taking the concept of victimhood to its logical conclusion, SIMON ATEBA announced Thursday evening that he is suing the White House over its new rules for acquiring hard passes, which resulted in the Today News Africa blogger being unable to renew his own. Although Ateba is still able to access the White House campus and attend daily press briefings, he alleges in his lawsuit that the new requirements (being credentialed by the House or Senate press galleries and a formal letter from his employer) are discriminatory.

The suit was filed by the Center for American Liberty, a right wing legal organization founded by HARMEET DHILLON, who ran unsuccessfully for chair of the Republican National Committee. Dhillon also represents former Fox News host TUCKER CARLSON, who worked to elevate Ateba as something of a conservative hero for his approach to the White House briefings and press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE’s response to him. In a tweet, Ateba declared he also planned to sue the White House Correspondents’ Association, The Washington Post and POLITICO for “character assassination.”

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by Axios’ NEIL IRWIN and COURTENAY BROWN proclaiming America is enjoying a “cool inflation summer.” The pair argue Thursday’s release of the latest inflation statistics, specifically core Consumer Price Index figures that remain flat, suggest that the country should enjoy a reprieve from soaring prices in everyday goods. Deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES tweeted the piece.

And this column by the Washington Post’s JOE DAVIDSON which argues Biden has improved America’s global standing after the country’s image worsened under former President DONALD TRUMP. Davidson cites a Pew Research poll that highlights how countries view the U.S. more favorably, especially after how the country responded following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by NBC News’ MIKE MEMOLI and JULIE TSIRKIN about Sen. JOE MANCHIN’s (D-W.Va.) plans to snub Biden’s invitation to join him at a White House ceremony next week to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act. Manchin has flirted with the possibility of running a third party presidential bid under the No Labels' banner. Although the White House has dismissed the significance of Manchin’s absence as related to the current congressional recess, the senator’s move is noteworthy considering he stood beside Biden and received a pen the president used to sign the signature climate law during a ceremony last year.

PERSONNEL MOVES: The White House announced Friday that Biden is naming C. KIRABO JACKSON, a labor economist whose work has focused on public schools, to join his Council of Economic Advisers. Reuters’ TREVOR HUNNICUTT reports “the selection suggests public education will be a key area of focus for Biden's brain-trust ahead of a 2024 re-election bid expected to turn on the strength of the economy.”

DISASTER DEFICIT: Biden’s request for $12 billion in emergency funding to support the federal Disaster Relief Fund might not be enough to help address the nation’s growing number of disasters as FEMA’s coffers approach deficit territory, our THOMAS FRANK reports for Climatewire.

FEMA Administrator DEANNE CRISWELL warned Congress in April that the agency was short on funding, and a report released earlier this week projects a $4.3 billion deficit in September. Although an official believes FEMA has enough resources to support its near-term operations, the agency is currently responding to 67 major disasters, a situation worsened by destructive wildfires in Hawaii.

WE’RE COMING FOR YOU: The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions on four prominent Russians and a business organization within the country, the Treasury Department announced. All of their property or interests in the U.S. are now blocked and must be reported to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Women Own This Summer. The Economy Proves It. (WSJ's Sarah Krouse and Anne Steele)

Tommy Tuberville: Florida’s third senator? (WaPo’s Glenn Kessler)

How the Inflation Reduction Act Has Reshaped the U.S.—and The World (TIME's Justin Worland)

JOHN TYLER, because of his allegiance to the Confederate States of America. Tyler’s coffin was draped with a Confederate flag; he remains the only U.S. president ever laid to rest under a flag not of the United States.

A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it!

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.

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