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The US supreme court has dealt a significant blow to one of US president Joe Biden’s key policy initiatives on Friday by striking down plans to forgive some student debt for about 40 million people.
In a separate ruling the same day, the court backed a web designer who maintained she had a constitutional right to refuse to provide services for same-sex marriages despite a law in Colorado where she lives that banned discrimination against members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Both decisions were essentially determined by the six to three conservative majority on the nine-member court.
Republicans were delighted with the decisions on Friday as well as with an earlier ruling on Thursday which effectively ended affirmative action in determining who gets into colleges and universities.
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Republican speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy said with the president’s “student loan giveaway” being found unlawful, “the 87 per cent of Americans without student loans are no longer forced to pay for the 13 per cent who do”.
Democrats, on the other hand, were outraged at the rulings.
Democrat senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said the “disappointing and cruel student debt ruling shows the callousness of the MAGA Republican-controlled supreme court”.
He condemned as “hypocrisy” supreme court judges who accepted lavish six-figure gifts from friends while refusing to help Americans saddled with student loan debt.
On the LGBTQ+ rights decision, he said that “refusing service based on whom someone loves is just as bigoted and hateful as refusing service based on race and religion”.
The rulings on Thursday and Friday showed the stark divisions on the supreme court bench. On both occasions, a liberal judge read to the court a dissenting judgment strongly opposing the view of the conservative majority.
The ruling to throw out the Biden administration’s plans for student debt forgiveness represents a significant setback to the president. Debt forgiveness had been a campaign promise during the 2020 election.
The Biden administration had planned to forgive up to $10,000 (€9,162) in federal student debt for Americans making under $125,000 who obtained loans to pay for college and other third-level education. Those who received grants available for lower-income families would receive up to $20,000 in debt write-off.
The president’s Republican opponents had strongly opposed the $400 billion initiative as unfair to those who never went to college or who paid off their student loans without government assistance.
Critics also argued that a one-off student loan forgiveness programme would do nothing to address the overall cost of third-level education.
The Biden administration had sought to introduce the student debt plan based on legislation introduced initially after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington.
However, chief justice John Roberts said the move by the secretary of education to “waive or modify” loan terms could not be stretched as far as intended. He said a mass debt cancellation programme of this level of significance required clear congressional authorisation.
In the Colorado web designer decision, the court found that Lorie Smith, as a creative professional, had a free speech right under the constitution’s first amendment to refuse to endorse messages with which she disagreed. As a result, she could not face potential legal punishment under Colorado’s anti-discrimination law for refusing to design websites for gay couples.
Writing for the majority, conservative justice Neil Gorsuch said in this case Colorado had sought to force an individual to speak in ways that aligned with its views but defied her conscience about a matter of significance.
“But, as this court has long held, the opportunity to think for ourselves and to express those thoughts freely is among our most cherished liberties and part of what keeps our republic strong. Of course, abiding the constitution’s commitment to freedom of speech means all of us will encounter ideas we consider ‘unattractive’, ‘misguided, or even hurtful’, But tolerance, not coercion, is our nation’s answer.”
Biden warned the Supreme Court ruling in the Colorado web designer case could “invite more discrimination against LGBTQI+ Americans”.
He said more broadly it weakened “long-standing laws that protect all Americans against discrimination in public accommodations – including people of colour, people with disabilities, people of faith, and women”.
“In America, no person should face discrimination simply because of who they are or who they love. The supreme court’s disappointing decision ... undermines that basic truth, and painfully it comes during Pride month when millions of Americans across the country join together to celebrate the contributions, resilience, and strength of the LGBTQI+ community,” the president said.
“My administration remains committed to working with our federal enforcement agencies to rigorously enforce federal laws that protect Americans from discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.”
On the student debt decision, the president said the “fight is not over” despite the Supreme Court ruling on Friday.
He said his plan would have “the lifeline tens of millions of hardworking Americans needed as they try to recover from a once-in-a-century pandemic.
“Nearly 90 per cent of the relief from our plan would have gone to borrowers making less than $75,000 a year, and none of it would have gone to people making more than $125,000. It would have been life-changing for millions of Americans and their families. And it would have been good for economic growth, both in the short- and long-term,” he said.
“The hypocrisy of Republican elected officials is stunning. They had no problem with billions in pandemic-related loans to businesses – including hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of dollars for their own businesses. And those loans were forgiven. But when it came to providing relief to millions of hard-working Americans, they did everything in their power to stop it.”