The Supreme Court of the United States gave a new boost this Friday to the conservatives by allowing some businesses to refuse to provide services to LGBT couples for religious reasons and by invalidating a measure by President Joe Biden to cancel part of the student debt.
The day before, the court, restructured by former Republican president Donald Trump, already abolished the affirmative action policy in universities, one of the achievements of the fight for civil rights of the 1960s.
The sentences were adopted with the votes in favor of the six conservative judges, against the opinion of the three progressives, just before the Court begins its summer break.
A year ago the court buried the federal right to abortion, upheld the right to bear arms and limited the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Like last year, the Republicans applauded each of the decisions and the Democrats opposed it.
Biden says he is “deeply concerned” about the risk that Friday’s sentence will increase discrimination against the LGBT+ community.
The high court ruled that companies that serve the public and carry out creative activities can invoke freedom of expression to refuse to provide a service contrary to their values.
It did so in response to Lorie Smith, a graphic designer who describes herself as a devout Christian and refuses to create websites for gay couples. She went to court to protest a Colorado (western) law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation on pain of penalties of up to $500.
FIRST AMENDMENT
The First Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees free speech, means that in the United States “people are free to think and say what they want, not what the government tells them,” writes Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor contradicted him on behalf of the progressives. “The court, for the first time in its history, granted a business open to the public the constitutional right to deny service” to customers protected by anti-discrimination laws, she wrote.
This ruling is the culmination of a legal battle by the religious right since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015.
In a video, the graphic designer reacted by saying that “the government should never force anyone to say things they don’t mean.”
The decision “will stigmatize LGBT+ families,” lamented Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the GLAAD association, which defends this community.
In 2018, the Supreme Court already ruled in favor of a Christian pastry chef who refused to prepare a wedding cake for a gay couple. But then he relied on technical grounds, without going so far as to promulgate general principles.
A NEW PLAN
Joe Biden took another big hit on student debt.
The Supreme Court ruled that his government had exceeded its powers by adopting a program without authorization from Congress.
This deprives Biden of an essential measure for the 2024 presidential elections, in which he hopes to be re-elected with the support of the middle class and the most disadvantaged.
The president acknowledged being disappointed but immediately announced that he would stick with a new plan “to relieve student debt for as many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible.”
In the United States, higher education is very expensive, and nearly 43 million people take out federal student loans totaling $1.630 trillion.
At the start of the pandemic, the Trump administration froze repayment of these loans under a 2003 law that allows it to “relieve” student debt holders in the event of a “national emergency.” This measure expires on August 31.
In anticipation of this deadline, Biden announced last August his intention to write off $10,000 of the debts of borrowers earning less than $125,000 a year and $20,000 of former scholarship recipients.
Twenty-six million applications were submitted, according to the White House, at a cost of more than $400 billion.
The courts blocked the application of this plan due to complaints from a coalition of Republican states and from two students who could not qualify for forgiveness.
They accused the government of using taxpayers’ money without congressional approval and believed that the 2003 law covers the freezing of the debt and not its cancellation.
“We agree with them,” Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.
Progressive Justice Elena Kagan dissents because “the court supplants Congress and the executive branch in formulating the nation’s student loan forgiveness policy.”
Biden announced that the new plan will be supported by another text, the Higher Education Act of 1965.
