WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court put its conservative slant — and its ever-more-combative liberal minority — on stark display Friday as it rejected federal plans to forgive student debt and backed businesses that refuse to serve same-sex couples.
In the latter ruling, the court sided with Lorie Smith, an evangelical Christian web designer in Colorado who feared her state's anti-discrimination law would compel her to provide her services to same-sex couples.
"The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the six-justice majority.
"Colorado seeks to deny that promise."
Minutes later, the same majority dealt President Joe Biden's administration another body blow: an outright rejection of a $400-billion plan to forgive or reduce outstanding loans for 43 million students.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan called that ruling "a danger to a democratic order" because it circumvents the separation of powers that puts policy decisions in the hands of Congress and the president.
"In every respect, the court today exceeds its proper, limited role in our nation's governance."
Biden agreed, calling the decision on student loan forgiveness "stunning."
"I think the court misinterpreted the (U.S.) Constitution," he said from the White House as he vowed to find another way to get young families the relief he promised.
"Today's decision has closed one path. Now we're going to pursue another."
Friday's two final decisions of the high court's spring term followed an even more fractious ruling the day before, all but barring colleges and universities from considering race and ethnicity in student admissions.
Following that one, Biden said, matter-of-factly: "This is not a normal court."
That's been clear for just over a year now, since the monumental decision last June to overturn Roe v. Wade, upending a half-century of precedent that guaranteed federal abortion rights across the U.S.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer framed the latest rulings as the legacy of former president Donald Trump, whose four-year term provided a rare opportunity to appoint three separate Supreme Court justices.
"The fanatical MAGA right have captured the Supreme Court and achieved dangerous, regressive policies that they could never attain at the ballot box," Schumer said in a statement.
He hinted at a series of recent ethics scandals that have shone an unflattering light on the court and ensnared several prominent members, including justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, as well as Chief Justice John Roberts.
"This MAGA-captured Supreme Court feels free to accept lavish gifts and vacations from their powerful, big-monied friends, all while they refuse to help everyday Americans."
The latest series of opinions has also resurrected calls from critics and progressives on Capitol Hill for an expansion of the court, adding four or more seats — an idea Biden has already dismissed as a non-starter.
"I think if we start the process of trying to expand the court, we're going to politicize it maybe forever in a way that is not healthy," he said Thursday in a rare midday interview on MSNBC.
The language in the dissenting opinions from the court's liberal justices showcased just how wide the ideological schism in the nine-judge panel has grown.
"Today the court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the minority.
"Today is a sad day in American constitutional law and in the lives of LGBT people."
Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson, whose organization has already declared a state of emergency on LGBTQ rights, called Friday's ruling another step down a perilous road.
"We should take it as an indication of what the court is doing, and that is rolling back rights and providing the door opening for discrimination in this country to advance," Robinson told CNN.
"We have to see it for what it is: part of a campaign of hate and discrimination by our opposition to target LGBTQ-plus people for political points."
On Thursday, it was Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court's first Black woman and Biden's only high-court appointee to date, who let rip.
"With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today the majority pulls the ripcord and announces 'colorblindness for all' by legal fiat," Brown-Jackson wrote, calling the affirmative action ruling "a tragedy for us all."
"But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2023.
James McCarten, The Canadian Press
