Today's two major decisions were respectively somewhat surprising and not at all surprising. I was a little surprised that the decision to allow businesses to discriminate against LGBT people was 6-3. The idea that the Court would countenance discrimination would - I thought - peel off one justice, most likely Roberts or Kavanaugh. I was wrong.
The decision to cancel some student debt does not surprise me in the least. This continues both the Right's war on education and the Court's war on economic redistribution. The Times - being the Times - asks how this will impact Biden's political fortunes. Obviously, people will be pissed and obviously, people can be irrational when they are pissed.
However, the Dobbs decision has placed a spotlight on the Court. People - especially younger people - were already pissed about overturning Roe, now they have another reason to be pissed. The decision about student debt is "easily" reversed. By that I mean that a Democratic House, a 52 seat Democratic Senate and the White House could write a new student debt relief law.
Running against an essentially lawless Court would be a bold move from someone like Biden, who is at heart an institutionalist. However, delegitimizing this Court is not an action that Biden would be taking, it would be a reality that he is pointing out. Quite independent of any political messaging, the Assembly of Religious Experts on the Supreme Court has exceeded their authority by substituting their judgment for the judgment of the Executive and Legislative branches. They have also taken cases - especially these two cases today - that should have been thrown out for lack of standing. They went well out of their way to fuck people over.
Bring this fight.
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