Supreme Court rulings supreme?

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in June against affirmative action and President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel $400 billion in student loan debt, and sided with a website designer’s choice to refuse service for same-sex weddings.

The Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious admission policies were unlawful. There has been a similar ban in California in place since 1996, but now the ban applies to colleges that receive federal funding, which is most of them.

“I support the banning of affirmative action because affirmative action just creates discrimination the other way and I believe race just shouldn’t be a factor in college admissions. Colleges should just look at the individual themselves and what they have done,” stated senior Jayden Ho.

“Affirmative action positively discriminates to benefit minorities and admission to college. It creates an equal distribution of opportunities, and therefore I believe the Supreme Court is wrong for banning it,” said sophomore Alyssa Evangelista.

On the following day, the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration could not implement its $400 billion student loan forgiveness plan without passing it through Congress. Over 26 million people applied and over 43 million people were eligible for loan forgiveness.

“I agree with the Supreme Court because student loan debt shouldn’t just disappear. It is something that all people who go to college should have to go through. It is the first step of independence; this is finally something that college students have to truly worry about,” noted junior Wesley Hon. “Let it be a motivation for post-college life. If there was nothing to worry about, you could just get by with subsistence and your degree would be wasted.”

“They should’ve done it anyway,” disagreed junior Luis Maldonado. “Student loans affect some people for their entire lives based on decisions they made when they were 18. Some people don’t even use their degrees. It’s almost like asking someone who’s barely even an adult to figure out what they want to do for the rest of their lives is stupid.”

The Biden administration has since vowed to look for other ways to fulfill their promise of student loan forgiveness.

Additionally, the Supreme Court ruled that a Colorado web designer had a First Amendment right to refuse service for same-sex weddings. Only businesses that engage in speech have this right, and restaurants and hotels have to serve everyone. 

“I respect that everyone has their own opinions, but I feel that everyone is obligated to do their job,” expressed junior Matthew Aguas. “We may not stand with the person or agree with their opinions, but we should still work with them and assist them with what they need.”

“I don’t see a problem with that. You have the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason,” stated freshman Jonathan Bahng.

The controversy surrounding the rulings stems not only from the large implications of the rulings, but also from the Supreme Court’s six conservative justices and three liberal justices. This ideological difference reflects on the court’s 6-3 majority vote and the conservative-leaning rulings, but does not reflect the near equally divided stance of Americans.