@jackofhearts I did a quick scan regarding Biden's next moves and got that his countermeasures will be successful.
Disgusted with the Supreme Court but not surprised. Very disheartening news today.
I believe this decision is going to cause chaos with society and within the courts.
Don't want to design a wedding invitation for an interfaith couple because you only believe in Christianity? ok cool.
Invetro-fertilization against your beliefs? No birth announcement design. No baby shower cake either.
To have this ruling come out on the last day of Pride month unacceptable.
@fnwilliamson is it possible his strategy is to let everyone see just how self-serving the Republicans and SCOTUS are, so that Biden and other Dems can come in with good ideas and fix things?
There does need to be something done about the current farcical SCOTUS. However, it won't be tomorrow. Or next year. I agree that Biden will do all he can do to right what has been put asunder. He did sort of pooh-pooh the thought of expanding the court in this week's aftermath. We must consider why. He is long in the tooth, experience wise. He knows that if he backs such an idea, he'll rile up the orange supporters. How dare they attempt to address the court we've packed? First, there has to be a clear majority in both the House and Senate willing to undertake such issues. Now, whether it is expanding the court, or getting the votes to impeach those who have done such things as lie during their confirmation hearings, or not reported gifts as they should have-not to mention failure to recuse oneself when their wife tried to overturn a fair election. There will be plenty of repercussions from all that has been done in the last year. The youth will be riled up.
There will be people refused services for things they never dreamed of-on both sides of the aisle. Interracial or interfaith weddings-nope, you are denied service. But they never dreamed that when they are marrying a second time, that too is now cause for denial of service. Out on a date with the mistress? Who did you vote for questions before service is given? I know, that's a little far-fetched. But it made news when Huckabee Sanders was denied service at a VA restaurant just because of who she was and who she represented, so I won't be surprised to see occasional events like this in the offing. Especially with those who are so disgruntled by what this court has done. Wouldn't it be a real wake-up call if they were the ones to be denied service, yet I can picture that happening. The court will be held in contempt by the general public for taking on a non-vetted case. The documents listed in the court case list falsified information. The gay man in question in the documents is neither gay (married for 15 years to the same woman), nor would he ever request someone to make a web page, since he himself is a web designer. How does one go about getting to the supreme court when there is no standing? The highest court in the land isn't supposed to give advisory opinions, they are there to interpret the constitution and federal law, not make laws or advise. This house of cards too will fall.
The "abnormality" of SCOTUS is not only with the decisions that they are making (and those are concerning enough), but also in the WAY they are making their decisions. In their briefs, their personal biases are clearly evident, which was never the intention of their roles as envisioned by the founding fathers. Also, by inviting and contriving certain arguments and not others, SCOTUS has powerful unchecked powers to steer America's future into a less educated, less diverse and far less successful future.
The recent SCOTUS rulings are disheartening, but once you tie in all the predictions here and elsewhere in the forum you begin to make sense of how this will likely play out. Overturning Roe was the first step in motivating people to resist. Now with the cake-designer ruling (a complete farce and most people know this), and the fact that President Biden almost immediately came forth with his “Plan B” counteroffensive to the student Loan ruling, it gives hope to the millions of people struggling to survive, and everyone of them is being given the impetus to vote out Republicans who invent for devious methods to oppress them. It’s more or less a last-ditch political suicide mission by Republicans, because they know they are losing support with every terrible decision or state law that comes down intending to punish ordinary citizens. The 6-3 split on the SCOTUS will not last, obviously, and this they also know, and Biden is becoming more and more popular for his administration’s accomplishments and resistance to Republican policies than any of these right-wing nutjobs are ready to admit. It’s going to take a little time, but I would think that even by the end of Biden’s second term we might see a Democratic majority on the SCOTUS - and the beginning of the reversal of some of these decisions coming down now. If some of these purple states (Texas, North Carolina, etc.) actually turn slightly more blue, we could even see a revival of the old Equal Rights Amendment, which lamentably died in 1979 when I was on the cusp of adulthood.
@toma I agree, and I think the first step after taking back the house would be to pass articles of impeachment against at least three of the current SCOTUS justices, not only for blatant ethics violations, but as Justice Jackson pointed out, the majority actually violated their Constitutional mandate by even accepting the wedding case. The Court is not advisory; it's supposed to hear and rule only on actual cases, not hypotheticals. I'd say that acting in violation of the Constitution would count as "high crime and misdemeanor"
If some of these purple states (Texas, North Carolina, etc.) actually turn slightly more blue, we could even see a revival of the old Equal Rights Amendment, which lamentably died in 1979 when I was on the cusp of adulthood.
I hate to say it but Texas is not purple. The major cities are blue, yes. Houston, Austin, San Antonio, even Dallas, and I think perhaps Lubbock, tilt blue. But there are a lot of Texans who don’t live in those cities, as well as plenty of Texans who do live in those cities and vote red. Every election year Democrats get their hopes up and every election year Texas elects Republicans for every statewide office, both Senate seats, and goes for the Republican presidential candidate. Every.single.time. Beto has lost three times in a row now and he is a highly qualified and charismatic candidate. Ted Cruz is universally disliked on both sides of the aisle, and yet he keeps getting elected.
I would love to be wrong about this but the evidence says otherwise.
On the Supreme Court canceling Biden's student debt forgiveness, I am noticing what Justice Elena Sagan wrote in her dissenting opinion:
“At the behest of a party that has suffered no injury, the majority decides a contested public policy issue properly belonging to the politically accountable branches and the people they represent,” she wrote. In exercising authority it does not have, she concluded, the Court “violates the Constitution.”)
In other words:
1. SCOTUS made a decision at the behest of the Republican Party who has not even suffered any injury from a cancelation of student debt. (The Republican Party hasn't been injured by the cancelation of student debt, they are just racist, cruel, mean haters of people less fortunate then they who would like an education that they don't want those people to have.)
2. Furthermore the Republican Party did not elect the president and his branches, i.e., Department of Education. The last election decided the make up of the Dept of Education. Put another way, the majority of people who voted in the Biden Administration have given the Biden Administration's branch that controls student loans and debt, the deciding authority to cancel student debt, since they have the authority to grant student loans.
3. Finally, SCOTUS has exercised authority it does NOT have, and thus violates the Constitution.
Also, to @enkasongwriter's prediction that Biden's remedy to this SCOTUS decision will be successful:
Biden's plan B:
"The Department of Education has already initiated a new rule-making process to open up different paths to push through debt relief, including using the Higher Education Act of 1965, which contains a provision giving the secretary of education the authority to “compromise, waive, or release any right, title, claim, lien, or demand.” It also announced other changes that would cut borrowers some slack, including a more affordable repayment plan and a year-long “on-ramp” to repayment." -- Atlantic Daily
Note that this Plan B will take many months to implement.
Of course, the mean-spirited SCOTUS majority would love to pass a law that says, no, Biden, you can't do that. But they'd be wading even further into unconstitutional territory of over reaching into a a duly elected Administration. No doubt, the zealots at the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation are busy as bees trying to stop Biden from lifting the debt burden off kids. I apologize if the link I posted is behind a paywall.
@impassionate The short answer is no, there's not much that can be done at this point or - barring party control change in the House - for the foreseeable future. He could be impeached, but that would have to begin in the House, and we all know how that would turn out. Even if they did manage to impeach him, the Senate R's would still be in full protect mode, so that route is unlikely at best. The Constitution grants life tenure otherwise, and despite the hype about the self-written "code of ethics" that SCOTUS put out a few weeks ago, it has no enforcement mechanism and no punishments.