Scott Gurvey's Public Offerings

Following its tradition of recent years, the Supreme Court of the United States spent the last few weeks of June releasing its most controversial decisions of the term. It then adjourned for its usual three-month vacation. This is the last of a series of posts analyzing those decisions.

As is their habit, the reporters who cover the Supreme Court of the United States wrote summarizing the court’s decisions for the term that ended in of June. Some surprised me in concluding that this term was less traumatic than the last. Those of that view concluded that the Court was mindful of the decline in public respect for the institution that followed the 2022 decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, overturning the fifty-year-old precedent holding that women had the right to control matters of their own reproductive health.

It is true, the decisions of the term just ended avoided the use of the term “overruled” the conservative supermajority applied with such glee in Dobbs. But I see little to cheer in their recent work. They have continued to erode at rights Americans have taken for granted. And they do with without regard for precedent, without deference to the elected branches, and without consideration for the principle that their jurisprudence be as limited as possible. Instead, they have set themselves up as the most powerful branch of government, the final arbiters of the most fundamental elements of our social intercourse. We have entered the age of SCOTUS uber alles.

Following its tradition of recent years, the Supreme Court of the United States spent the last few weeks of June releasing its most controversial decisions of the term. It then adjourned for its usual three-month vacation. This is part of a series of posts analyzing those decisions.

On the last day of the term the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Biden v. Nebraska that the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan was unconstitutional. The plan, which would have forgiven up to $20,000 in student debt for borrowers with incomes below $125,000, was based on the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act (HEROES Act), a 2003 law that allows the government to provide relief to recipients of student loans during a national emergency.