Keller @ Large: Supreme Court decisions put it front and center of 2024 election
BOSTON - The Supreme Court invalidated President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan Friday, ruling that a 2003 federal law does not allow the program to wipe out nearly half-a-trillion dollars in debt.
"In every respect, the Court today exceeds its proper, limited role in our Nation's governance," Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her scathing dissent to the majority ruling throwing out President Biden's pandemic loan forgiveness order.
And Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the ruling, doesn't like it; it's "disturbing," he writes, that Court is criticized for "going beyond the proper role of the judiciary... It is important that the public not be misled... Any such misperception would be harmful to this institution and our country."
Take the 15 minutes or so needed to read the decision and dissent and make up your own mind. From here it looks like both sides have a point.
After all, Biden himself initially said he was unsure about whether or not he had the power to waive $10,000 of outstanding education loan debt in light of the pandemic's economic damage. Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was less ambivalent: "People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not," she said back in 2021. "He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress."
Biden went ahead and did it anyway, under political pressure from the likes of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. And Roberts argues the Court majority is now stepping in to do what it is often called on to do - reign in an overreaching branch of government and restore the proper balance of power.
Kagan calls b.s. on that one, claiming "the Court is supposed to stick to its business - to decide only cases and controversies and to stay away from making this Nation's policy about subjects like student-loan relief."
And that smackdown is what so offends Roberts. But what do he and his activist conservative colleagues expect? It was reportedly Roberts himself who tried to reign in the far-right rhetoric of Justices Alito and Thomas as they trashed Roe v. Wade and hinted that gay marriage rights might be next.
Keep in mind, the Court has broad discretion over what cases it takes on. When a majority - be it conservative or liberal - chooses to wade so aggressively into complex social issues, there's going to be political fallout. It doesn't help the perceptions of the institution that's so worrying Roberts that Alito and Thomas have been caught lapping up goodies provided by right-wing activists and hob-nobbing with right-wing political groups.
The death of the Biden student loan bailout won't necessarily be a political slam dunk for his re-election campaign. Polls showed plenty of people were skeptical when it was announced, especially many who struggled to pay off their loans without any breaks.
But this week's flurry of high-profile right-wing victories, including the affirmative action decision Thursday and Friday's ruling that a Christian graphic artist from Colorado doesn't have to design wedding websites for same-sex couples, ensure that this activist court will be front and center in the 2024 election - for better or worse.
