Today is Friday, June 30, 2023. As if we couldn’t suffer another blow under this malicious Supreme Court, we have now suffered another one-two punch from this revolting conservative bastion of the far right. In two shattering decisions today, discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community was put into full relief by a miserable decision against same-sex couples in a “fake” case involving a web designer who indicated that her religious beliefs precluded her from servicing same-sex couples and, in another decision, President Biden’s loan forgiveness program for university students was struck down. The first awful decision could have a far-reaching impact on other minority groups and could open the door to a slew of cases seeking to further chip away at civil rights protections in the United States.

This blockbuster ruling receives online coverage in CNN in an article by Devan Cole entitled “What the Supreme Court’s LGBTQ rights decision means.”

In a 6-3 opinion delivered by Justice Neil Gorsuch today that was joined by the court’s five conservative jurists, the justices said that the First Amendment’s free speech protections permitted the web designer, Lorie Smith, to refuse to extend her services for same-sex weddings.

As with yesterday’s stunning decision on affirmative action, the Supreme Court’s three liberal members dissented from today’s ruling, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing that the majority was giving business a “new license to discriminate.”

Sotomayor suggested that the decision’s “logic cannot be limited to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.” In a written statement, Sotomayor wrote that it “threatens to balkanize the market and to allow the exclusion of other groups from many services.”

Thus today it’s the gays who can now be discriminated against in this dreadful ruling, tomorrow it can be anybody who calls him- or herself Jewish, Black, or anything else not liked by a Christian minority because they have an objection to those sorts of people being in their business. Katherine Franke, a professor at Columbia Law School, warned that this could happen as a result of today’s misguided decision. She said, “The worry is that this provides a green light to any business owner that they can refuse service to any person on the basis of their identity, whether they’re gay or lesbian, or Jewish or Black, or anything, because they have an objection to those sorts of people being in their business.” Franke added, “There was nothing in the opinion that limits it to objections to same sex marriage.”

So overall, this is not a good decision for a vulnerable community that continues to be attacked by the far right, this time inhabiting the bodies of three very conservative Supreme Court justices.

The second decision overturned President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, blocking millions of borrowers from receiving up to $2o,000 in federal student debt relief, just months before student loan payments are set to restart after a years-long pause.

This second unpopular decision is covered in a CNN article by Katie Lobosco entitled “Biden’s student loan forgiveness program was rejected by the Supreme Court. Here’s what borrowers need to know.”

The President had announced the student loan forgiveness program last August, but it never took effect, having been tied up in courts for months.

Later today, Biden proclaimed his administration will pursue another pathway to providing some student debt relief, which is based on a different law than the one the now-defunct student loan forgiveness program was linked to.

Most student loan borrowers have not been required to make payments on their federal student loans since March 2020, when Congress passed a sweeping aid program to help people struggling financially because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since then, the pause has been extended eight times – under both the Trump and Biden administrations.

Now the Biden administration said today that it will provide a 12-month on-ramp period for borrowers reentering payment. In a statement, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said, “Borrowers who can make payments should do so as payments will resume and interest will accrue.”

Borrowers will be helped by this on-ramp period in which they will avoid the harshest consequences of missed, partial, or late payments like negative credit reports and having loans referred to collection agencies.

The wrong decision made today by the “Extreme” Court (a moniker I saw on a MSNBC program this evening) throws all those loan borrowers into a state of confusion, as borrowers will have to reauthorize the automatic debit from their accounts to pay their monthly loan bill even if they authorized the withdrawals before the pause began.

Anyway, all of these people who have now been abandoned by the court would have preferred their debt to be forgiven instead of having to pay back their loans which would bring them to the precipice of bankruptcy in some cases.

These recent decisions should outrage all Americans who see that individual rights have been rolled back by this radical court. And this juggernaut is not even over! The court goes on recess today; but who even wants them to even start another term in October? Who knows what rights will be struck down next? It is no wonder that confidence in the Supreme Court is at an all-time low, according to a Gallup poll.

President Biden slammed repugnicans for bringing this case to the Extreme Court by reminding everyone that repugnicans themselves received loan forgiveness during the recent COVID-19 pandemic and now they have the temerity to demand that students – most of them belonging to minorities and communities of color – be denied loan forgiveness. What gargantuan hypocrisy!

As I try to absorb the punitive impact of these three court decisions on so many people, I’m announcing that Elliot and I are driving to Easton, Pennsylvania, to see our friends “Sandy” and “Ralph” tomorrow and are returning to the city on Monday afternoon. So I will be away from this space until Monday evening.

Wow! It’s July 1 tomorrow. And we have the poor air again drifting in from Canada’s wildfires. So I now wear a mask outside, which I haven’t done so in a dog’s age.

So I hope to see you on Monday of next week.

Have a good weekend.

Stay safe and be well.

By the way, don’t forget to wear your mask outside until the bad air leaves us. You don’t have to suffer from asthma or some other respiratory condition to protect yourself from the poor air quality to justify wearing a mask now. The air quality index at the moment is that bad: 157.