In August 2022, President Joe Biden announced a program to cancel up to $400 billion in student loans. As of June 30, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that the Biden administration has no legal authority to create such a program, although it could help more than 43 million Americans.
The 6-3 decision was headed by Chief Justice John Roberts and backed by Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett. The Supreme Court said that while the Heroes Act permits the Education Secretary, Miguel Cardona, to waive or modify programs under emergencies, the plan that Biden proposed far exceeded the authority that the President is given by Congress. Justice Elena Kagan wrote in dissent stating that the act did not specifically limit the judgment as to which modifications were needed for an emergency, and she was backed by the other two liberals on the court, Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor.
In a statement from the White House, Biden said that the “fight is not over” and “the Court’s decision to strike down [their] student debt relief plan is wrong.” He then went on to call out the “hypocrisy of Republican elected officials,” pointing out that they had granted loans and hand-outs for many businesses, even their own, during the pandemic, all of which were forgiven. However, when it came to working-class Americans, these elected officials did not lift a finger to help them. Rather, “they did everything in their power to stop” them from getting relief.
While this is unfortunate, this situation is not new to Americans. Since Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced with Amy Coney Barrett as Donald Trump’s third and final appointment to the Supreme Court in 2020, we have seen a rise in conservative backed SCOTUS rulings. In the 2021-2022 Supreme Court term, 74% of cases had a conservative ruling. This rise of conservative rulings was even acknowledged by the Republican Policy Committee when they stated that “Conservative victories this term were possible because of the three justices nominated by President Trump.”
Along with the ruling to deny Biden’s plan for student loan forgiveness, the conservative ruled Supreme Court also limited affirmative action in higher education and allowed for discrimination against LGBTQ+ people through the form of wedding websites. Many people are considering these rulings not only blows to the liberal standing communities but directly to President Joe Biden himself. Biden’s initial campaign for the 2020 election was heavily advertised with student loan forgiveness, raising the minimum wage, investing in cleaner energy sources, rejoining the global climate accord, expanding Obamacare and other various actions that many Americans are now seeing were too good to be true. So far, he has only followed through with an insignificant number of his campaign promises, as many were blocked by the conservative Supreme Court or Republican Senate.
The conservative ruled Supreme Court has acted against the general American public, maliciously striking down laws that would largely benefit a majority of our population. These federal representatives are meant to support the American people, yet time and time again, we have been struck down. It is time that we rethink how these representatives are appointed to avoid them pushing their philosophical beliefs and ideologies on the bench.
