The Supreme Court will likely rule Friday on President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan and LGBTQ protections ahead of its summer recess, reports SCOTUSblog.
Biden last year announced his plan to forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt ($20,000 for those who received a Pell Grant), a move that was met immediately with legal roadblocks. The program has now faced at least six lawsuits from Republican-backed states and conservative groups.
Roughly 14 million people would have their student debt entirely cleared by the program, which would wipe out more than a quarter of the country’s $1.7 trillion in outstanding federal student debt. The cases being considered are Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown.
"I would expect it then, absent some very unusual circumstances," said Amy Howe, a co-founder of SCOTUSblog.
Another case pending is 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, a case brought by a Christian graphic artist who objected to designing wedding websites for gay couples, the latest collision of religion and gay rights to land at the high court.
The designer and her supporters say that ruling against her would force artists — from painters and photographers to writers and musicians — to do work that is against their beliefs. Her opponents, meanwhile, say that if she wins, a range of businesses will be able to discriminate, refusing to serve Black, Jewish or Muslim customers, interracial or interfaith couples or immigrants.
The report comes the same day the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions and solidified protections for workers who ask for religious accommodations.
In a unanimous decision the justices made clear that workers who ask for accommodations, such as taking the Sabbath off, should get them unless their employers show doing so would result in "substantial increased costs" to the business.
In the affirmative action case, a divided Supreme Court declared race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.
The court’s conservative majority effectively overturned cases reaching back 45 years in invalidating admissions plans at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private and public colleges, respectively.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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