Gallagher's comments echoed a false headline posted by the Drudge Report earlier on October 27: "2001 Obama: Tragedy That 'Redistribution of Wealth' Not Pursued by Supreme Court."
In fact, in the interview to which Gallagher was referring, Obama did not say that the mission of the Supreme Court should be changed. He also did not say, contrary to an assertion by the Drudge Report and by Fox News in on-screen text earlier in the day, documented by Media Matters for America, that it is a "tragedy" that the Supreme Court has not addressed wealth redistribution.
To the contrary, as Media Matters for America noted, Obama said that the "traged[y]" lay in the civil rights movement's overreliance on the courts to bring about political and economic justice, when the judicial system is not the appropriate vehicle to effect broad economic change.
