Supreme Court live updates: SCOTUS rulings on Biden’s student loan program coming today

WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court will wrap up a historic term Friday with two monumental decisions in controversies closely followed for months by millions of Americans: Whether President Joe Biden has the power to wipe out student loan debt and whether businesses may deny wedding services to same-sex couples.

The rulings will land a day after the court’s sharply divided decision that effectively ended affirmative action policies at American colleges, scrambling the decades long effort to ensure campuses reflect the nation’s diversity, and a unanimous opinion that will require employers to be more accommodating of workers’ religious requests.

Taken together, the high court’s final decisions are likely to reflect a turn to the right after a term in which the conservative and liberal wings seemed to find common ground in surprising ways, including over voting rights, immigration, and a 1978 law that was intended to stop the forced removal of Native American children.

The final decisions are expected to land minutes after at 10 a.m. EDT.

Student loans, LGBTQ cases round out significant term

The final two cases expected Monday will bring to close a significant term in which the justices agreed far more often than they split along ideological lines.

Some of the most surprising outcomes came in voting rights cases, where the lineups were unusual.  Last week, the court shot down a conservative theory that could have given state lawmakers extraordinary power to set election rules in their states with little oversight from courts. That was a 6-3 vote, with Roberts writing for a majority that included two more conservatives and the three liberals.

Earlier this month, the court unexpectedly ruled against Alabama in a challenge to its recently redrawn congressional districts, smacking down an argument for “color-blind” redistricting. The 5-4 decision from Roberts brought together one additional conservative and three liberals.

Story continues

Who’s writing the student debt, LGBTQ opinions?

Nobody knows for certain who is writing what but as the term draws to its close there are some clues. That’s partly because each justice generally writes one decision from each sitting – a period of several weeks in which cases are argued.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in the LGBTQ case on Dec. 5, which was the Nov. 28 sitting. The only justice who has yet to write from that sitting is Justice Neil Gorsuch. So there’s a good chance that Gorsuch, who is one of the court’s most ardent supporters of religious rights, will write the majority in opinion in 303 Creative v. Elenis.

The assignment of the student loan cases, which were argued in late February, are harder to predict because only three justices have written in that sitting. Assuming the case goes to a senior conservative, there’s a good  chance it will land with Chief Justice John Roberts or Justice Samuel Alito.

Where to find the Supreme Court’s student loan decision

The Supreme Court justices will enter the ornate chamber and take their seats at 10 a.m. EDT and the marshal will kick off the proceedings with the traditional cry of “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!” Chief Justice John Roberts will then announce which of his colleagues has written the court’s opinion in the first case.

The justice who authored the opinion – and sometimes the justices writing dissents and concurrences – then read summaries of their positions. These readings can help make sense of the outcome, but they are not streamed. When one case is done, Roberts will announce who has the next opinion.

Opinions become public at the same time they are announced from the bench. So the easiest way to follow along is to head to the opinions section of the Supreme Court’s website.

Biden student loan relief plan in jeopardy

At issue in the student loan case is Biden’s plan to wipe out student loan debt for 26 million Americans, an idea that would cost an estimated $400 billion and that has been on the ropes in federal courts almost from the get-go.

Biden’s attorneys walked into court as underdogs in the case, up against a years-long project by the court’s conservative majority to limit the power of federal agencies. The administration has lost similar legal fights over efforts to extend an eviction moratorium, impose vaccine-or-testing requirements on large employers and curb power plant emissions.

Race: Supreme Court blocks use of affirmative action at Harvard, UNC in blow to diversity efforts

Biden announced the student loan program in August, honoring a campaign pledge he made before the 2020 election. About 26 million borrowers applied in the few weeks applications were open, and more than 16 million were approved before a pair of court decisions put the loan forgiveness effort on hold. The administration had estimated that as many as 40 million people would be eligible for relief under the program.

But the effort drew immediate pushback from conservatives, who noted Congress failed to pass legislation that explicitly authorized the forgiveness. Instead, Biden relied on a law passed in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks that gave the Education Department power to “waive or modify” loan rules for Americans suffering from an emergency. 

Six conservative states and two individual borrowers filed lawsuits over the plan. The states, including Missouri and Nebraska, argued a state-created entity known as MOHELA that services student loans would lose money if the debt was forgiven. The borrowers said they weren’t given an opportunity to argue for more relief.

The Supreme Court on June 29, 2023.

Wedding websites: Sweeping implications for LGBTQ rights

In a decision that could have profound implications for when businesses may turn away customers, a Colorado website designer has argued that a state anti-discrimination law can’t be used to compel her to develop same-sex wedding sites. It is the latest in a series of cases to reach the court pitting business owners against LGBTQ customers, although this one focused on free speech rights more than religion.

Lorie Smith, the owner of 303 Creative, a Denver-based website design firm, said she didn’t object to serving LGBTQ customers – only same-sex weddings. Because Smith’s websites are custom creations they represent her speech as well as that of her customers, her lawyers argued. Smith was never approached by an LGBTQ couple seeking a matrimonial website site. Rather, she wanted the high court to invalidate the Colorado law before that could happen.

Critics said Smith’s argument would allow businesses to skirt anti-discrimination laws.

After a landmark victory in 2015 legalizing same-sex marriage and another win in 2020 that banned workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the outlook for LGBTQ rights at the Supreme Court has dimmed in recent years – especially when those rights are in tension with the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom.

People protest outside of the Supreme Court on June 29, 2023.

Affirmative action: High court hands down major ruling on race

Higher education experts were still parsing the implications of a ruling Thursday that struck down affirmative action admissions policies used by Harvard College and the University of North Carolina to diversify their campuses.

In one of the year’s most closely watched cases, the court ruled along ideological lines that the way the colleges approached race violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The decision drew a sharp rebuke from the court’s liberal wing, who said it rolled “decades of precedent and momentous progress.”

Case tracker: Race, religion and debt. Here are the biggest cases pending at the Supreme Court

Chief Justice John Roberts, long a skeptic of race-based policies, wrote that too many universities “have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin.” The nation’s constitutional history, he wrote, “does not tolerate that choice.”

President Joe Biden speaks about the Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on June 29, 2023.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Live updates: Supreme Court to rule on Biden’s plan for student loans