Supreme Court End of Term Extravaganza!

Mike and May open this all-SCOTUS episode with a discussion of the Court’s ruling in the big affirmative action case, Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard. Both Mike and May agree with the Court’s decision, with Mike pointing out that while like most liberals, he’s a big proponent of diversity, he doesn’t believe that Harvard and UNC’s diversity plans pass the strict scrutiny test that’s appropriately applied here.

Next, they move to the LGBT / 1st Amendment ruling in 303 Creative LLC v Elenis. Mike sides with the dissenters who argued that Colorado’s antidiscrimination law only incidentally affects speech, while May believes that the majority got it right in viewing that the law unconstitutionally compels website designer Lorie Smith to promote views with which she disagrees.

Then it’s the Court’s pronouncement on the independent state legislature theory in Moore v Harper. Mike doesn’t think the Court should have taken the case in the first place for reasons of mootness but believes that the coalition of three conservatives and three liberals in the majority were right to rule against the theory. May points out that the Court didn’t provide that much guidance as to the scope of state judicial review of election laws which likely means more lawsuits going forward.

They close with Biden v Nebraska, in which the Court invalidated the Biden administration’s student debt relief plan. Mike is with the dissenters on this one, arguing that the administration was within the statutory authority granted by Congress, whereas May contends that the majority was correct in their view that the authority to ‘waive’ in the legislation does not give the administration the authority to simply forgive massive amounts of student loan debt. (More from May on that here.)

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