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☆ The Supreme Court justices deciding whether to axe Biden's student loan relief program paid an average of $42,539 to go to college. Today, they'd have to pay around $320,531.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Sarah Al-Arshani | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Biden's student debt relief on Tuesday. The cost of getting an undergraduate degree was significantly cheaper when they graduated than now. When Roberts graduated in 1979, it cost $21,400; in 1992 when Jackson earned her undergraduate degree, it would have cost $75,360. When Roberts graduated in 1979, it cost $21,400; in 1992 when Jackson earned her undergraduate degree, it would have cost $75,360. Student loan borrowers gathered at the Supreme Court today to tell the court that student loan relief is legal on January 2, 2023.

☆ Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan is in jeopardy. Here are 4 major takeaways from the Supreme Court's oral arguments.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Biden's student-debt relief on Tuesday. The nation's highest court heard more than four hours of oral arguments in two high-profile cases that reviewed Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in debt for federal borrowers, which lower courts temporarily paused in November. "We're talking about half a trillion dollars and 43 million Americans," Chief Justice John Roberts said, referring to the estimated costs of Biden's plan and the number of affected borrowers. Justice Elena Kagan raised a hypothetical national emergency of an earthquake and the education secretary responded by deciding to cancel student loans for those harmed. Still, even if Barrett and the court's three liberals find that the states and borrowers lack standing, they would need another conservative vote to uphold Biden's debt relief.

☆ Clarence Thomas was still making student loan payments when he joined the Supreme Court — and a fellow Yale law student suggested he declare bankruptcy to avoid the 'crushing weight' of payments: book
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Sarah Al-Arshani | Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Supreme Court will hear two challenges to Biden's student loan debt relief plan on Tuesday. In 2007, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote about the "crushing weight" of student debt in his own life. In his 2007 memoir "My Grandfather's Son," Thomas, the court's longest-serving justice, spoke of the "crushing weight" of student debt from his time at Yale Law School. In August, Biden announced plans to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers making under $125,000 a year. Biden's Education Department has begun reforming the process to make it easier, but right now, the main focus is the president's broad debt relief plan.

The court in a 6-3 decision authored by liberal Justice Elena Kagan decided that because the rig supervisor, Michael Hewitt, was paid a daily rate of $963 and not a salary, an overtime pay exemption in federal wage law for highly paid workers did not apply to him. Circuit Court of Appeals that Helix must face Hewitt's 2017 lawsuit seeking overtime pay. A ruling favoring Hewitt would require companies to pay overtime premiums and invite a flood of lawsuits from highly paid workers, the groups added. That coupled with his management duties made him exempt from overtime pay, Kavanaugh said. Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch in a separate dissent said Helix's appeal should have been dismissed for procedural reasons.

☆ Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse demands more transparency on gifts, food, lodging and entertainment that federal judges and Supreme Court justices receive
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse sent a letter to an agency demanding more information on ethics rules for federal judges. Unlike lower federal judges, Supreme Court justices are not bound by a code of conduct. In a new letter obtained by Insider, Whitehouse demanded answers on how the justices and all other federal judges disclose hospitality they receive, including gifts, food, lodging and entertainment. The letter is a follow-up to a lengthy back-and-forth in recent years between Whitehouse and the agency on the judges' ethics rules. The American Bar Association also urged the Supreme Court this month to adopt ethics rules similar to those followed by all other federal judges.

☆ Supreme Court set to hear Google case that could impact free speech online
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

John Roberts, chief justice of the US Supreme Court, from left, Elena Kagan, associate justice of the US Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, associate justice of the US Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, associate justice of the US Supreme Court, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, associate justice of the US Supreme Court, ahead of a State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Tuesday in a potentially groundbreaking case with the potential to alter the force of a key law the tech industry says has been critical to keeping the internet an open place that fosters free speech. That case is known as Gonzalez v. Google, brought by the family of an American who died in a 2015 terrorist attack in Paris. Now that shield is at stake as the petitioners argue it should not apply where Google actively promotes user-generated content, such as through its recommendation algorithms. The Supreme Court will also hear a separate tech case Wednesday that could have implications for how platforms promote and remove speech on their sites.

☆ Supreme Court justices aren't 'the 9 greatest experts on the internet,' Elena Kagan said as they heard a major tech case
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Section 230 provides tech companies with legal immunity over the content shared on their sites. "We're a court," Justice Elena Kagan said during more than two-and-a-half hours of oral arguments on the major tech case. The family argued that Google should be held liable for its platform, YouTube, recommending ISIS videos to its interested users. Both Republicans and Democrats have attacked the provision, saying tech companies should be subject to some accountability for how they run their platforms. Despite the justices' skepticism, however, some of them did question the broad legal immunity granted to tech companies during arguments on Tuesday.

☆ Supreme Court justices in Google case express hesitation about upending Section 230
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Supreme Court Justices voiced hesitation on Tuesday about upending a key legal shield that protects tech companies from liability for their users' posts, and for how the companies moderate messages on their sites. The current case was brought by the family of an American killed in a 2015 terrorist attack in Paris. Lower courts sided with Google, saying Section 230 protects the company from being held liable for third-party content posted on its service. Even conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, who has openly written that the court should take up a case around Section 230, seemed skeptical of the petitioners' line in the sand. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan suggested it's not necessary to agree completely with Google's assessment of the fallout from altering 230 to fear the potential consequences.

The Supreme Court for the first time in this case is scrutinizing the scope of a much-debated 1996 federal law called Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects internet companies from liability for content posted by their users. "These are not like the nine greatest experts on the internet," liberal Justice Elena Kagan said of the court's members, eliciting laughter in the courtroom. Kagan and conservative colleague Justice Brett Kavanaugh both suggested Congress might be better suited to adjust legal protections for internet companies if warranted. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts questioned whether Section 230 should apply given that recommendations are provided by YouTube itself. President Joe Biden's administration urged the Supreme Court to revive the lawsuit by Nohemi Gonzalez's family.

☆ How Clarence Thomas went from a left-wing Black radical to one of the Supreme Court's most conservative judges
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( James Pasley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Thomas spent a year training to become a priest, but after the prejudice he encountered, he changed his mind. Clarence Thomas is seen looking at a textbook with another student in a high school yearbook photo, circa 1959. He protested against the Vietnam War and segregation. In a speech he made in 1993, he said he was told he wasn't "really Black" if he didn't have an Afro. Sources: Esquire, New Yorker , New Yorker, ABC

☆ Two Supreme Court cases this week could upend the entire internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Washington CNN —The Supreme Court is set to hear back-to-back oral arguments this week in two cases that could significantly reshape online speech and content moderation. The closely watched cases, known as Gonzalez v. Google and Twitter v. Taamneh, carry significant stakes for the wider internet. Many Republican officials allege that Section 230 gives social media platforms a license to censor conservative viewpoints. In recent years, however, several Supreme Court justices have shown an active interest in Section 230, and have appeared to invite opportunities to hear cases related to the law. The Court last month delayed a decision on whether to hear those cases, asking instead for the Biden administration to submit its views.

☆ Ron DeSantis styles himself a culture warrior for God. But his push to expand the death penalty is 'deeply concerning' to the Catholic Church.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The Catholic Church is speaking out against a GOP push to expand the death penalty. Making it "easier to impose death is deeply concerning," Michael Sheedy of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops told Insider. 'Deeply concerning'Any effort to expand the death penalty in Florida will face obstacles: the state and US constitutions. "An execution represents a judgment by fallible human beings that a person is beyond redemption – a judgment the Catholic Church rejects," they said. Tony Argiz, right, recalled how the Catholic Church helped him when he came to the US from Cuba as an unaccompanied minor.

WASHINGTON — Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh said the Supreme Court is not as divided as members of the public might think, praising his liberal colleagues and highlighting rulings in which the justices were not divided on ideological lines during a recent public appearance. Kavanaugh had special praise for the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the recently retired liberal Justice Stephen Breyer and Breyer’s successor, liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, saying she “has hit the ground running" and is "thoroughly prepared." Ginsburg and Breyer "couldn't have been better at welcoming me to the court," Kavanaugh said, referring to his nomination by then-President Donald Trump in 2018. Kavanaugh this week appeared eager to counter any perceptions that the court is usually divided on ideological lines, pointing out several cases in which he had joined liberal justices in 5-4 decisions. Statistics compiled for the SCOTUSblog legal website showed, however, that in the previous court term only 29 percent of the decisions were unanimous, lower than at any time in the past two decades.

The new rules adopted by both GOP-led chambers effectively shield members and their staff from public records requests, making investigations into any potential wrongdoing far more difficult. The exemptions from public records laws and the ability to destroy emails after 90 days apply to both chambers. Because the chambers adopted the changes via rule changes, not legislation, Republicans were able to bypass the need for Democratic Gov. Legislatures having the ability to shield themselves from public records laws is not unheard of. Minnesota, Iowa, Oklahoma and Massachusetts also have laws in place effectively exempting state legislators from public records requests, according to record request nonprofit MuckRock, though it remains exceedingly common for lawmakers in states where such exemptions don't explicitly exist to avoid complying with public records laws.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday belatedly issued the first ruling of its nine-month term that started in October, more than a month behind its normal schedule. Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the court's first opinion, with the justices ruling unanimously against Navy veteran Adolfo Arellano in a technical dispute over disability benefits. The court dismissed a second case concerning the scope of attorney-client privilege without issuing a written ruling. With the court term running from October to June, the first opinions are usually released in November or December. Adam Feldman, who tracks Supreme Court statistics, found that this term is the first since 1917 that the court had not released a ruling by the beginning of December.

[1/2] U.S. Supreme Court police officers stand on the front steps of the Supreme Court building prior to the official investiture ceremony for the court's newest Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and the start of the court's 2022-2023 term in Washington, U.S. September 30, 2022. The report said the Supreme Court's information security environment was "built fundamentally on trust with limited safeguards to regulate and constrain access to very sensitive information." But it called the court's information security policies "outdated" and recommended that it overhaul its platform for handling case-related documents and remedy "inadequate safeguards" for tracking who prints and copies documents. The Supreme Court's IT systems operate separately from the rest of the federal judiciary. U.S. judiciary officials have said the systems used by federal appellate and district courts also are outdated and need modernization.

☆ Supreme Court again declines to block New York gun restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The Supreme Court on Wednesday turned away a challenge by a group of firearms dealers in New York to numerous Democratic-backed measures adopted by the state last year regulating gun purchases that the businesses said hurt their businesses. Others were adopted in July after the Supreme Court the prior month struck down New York’s limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home in a landmark ruling expanding gun rights. New York officials have said the new gun restrictions, which face numerous legal challenges in lower courts, are needed to protect public safety. The Supreme Court has broadened gun rights in three key rulings since 2008. Alito wrote that the New York law at issue “presents novel and serious questions” under the U.S. Constitution’s provisions on gun rights and free speech.

Others were adopted in July after the Supreme Court the prior month struck down New York's limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home in a landmark ruling expanding gun rights. New York officials have said the new gun restrictions, which face numerous legal challenges in lower courts, are needed to protect public safety. The Supreme Court has broadened gun rights in three key rulings since 2008. Alito wrote that the New York law at issue "presents novel and serious questions" under the U.S. Constitution's provisions on gun rights and free speech. Nine individuals who sell firearms in upstate New York and a gun collectors association sued state officials in federal court to challenge a series of laws regulating purchases.

☆ At least 1 law clerk is among a small group of suspects in Supreme Court investigation of abortion leak: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Supreme Court officials have narrowed their abortion leak investigation to a small group of people, according to a WSJ report. A spokesperson for the Supreme Court did not immediately return Insider's request for comment. The unprecedented leak shattered Supreme Court norms, prompting outcry from several of the justices on both sides of the ideological spectrum. More recently, The New York Times reported in November on another alleged leak of a 2014 Supreme Court decision, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, a case concerning religious rights and reproductive health. Former anti-abortion leader Rob Schenck told The Times that he had gained advanced knowledge of the Supreme Court's decision weeks before it was released.

Sentencing Commission unanimously voted to publish for public comment a proposed amendment to federal sentencing guidelines relied upon by judges nationally that would limit them from considering a defendant's "acquitted conduct." The vote came a day before U.S. Supreme Court justices were scheduled to meet privately to consider hearing, among other cases, four different appeals by criminal defendants urging them to end to this common judicial practice. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1997 held that a jury's verdict of acquittal does not prevent a judge at sentencing from considering conduct underlying the acquitted charge. Some U.S. lawmakers and defense lawyers have criticized the practice as unfair and a potential violation of defendants' civil rights. Some members of the judiciary including current Supreme Court justices have questioned it.

NEW YORK, Jan 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed New York to enforce a Democratic-backed gun control law adopted after the justices last year struck down the state's limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home in a landmark ruling that expanded gun rights. Circuit Court of Appeals in December put that decision on hold while the state pursues an appeal. Wednesday's action may not be the last time the Supreme Court addresses New York's new gun law. New York state Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, praised the court's decision to keep the law in effect. Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the Concealed Carry Improvement Act on July 1, a week after the Supreme Court's landmark ruling against a New York concealed carry permit restriction.

☆ How Anti-Abortion Activists Bought Access to the Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Katherine Long | Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

In exchange for as little as a few thousand dollars in contributions to the nonprofit, these people received easy access to events where Supreme Court justices would be. Supreme Court Historical society trustee Jay Sekulow, center, represented President Trump during the latter's impeachment trial in 2020. Anti-abortion advocates cheer in front of the Supreme Court after the decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores was announced in 2014. Alito did not respond to a request for comment on his involvement in the Supreme Court Historical Society. Supreme Court justices, though, aren't even required to stay within those weak guardrails because no code of ethics governs justices' behavior.

☆ House speaker chaos signals Donald Trump’s shrinking influence
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Trump's allies repeatedly rejected Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, displaying his power's limits. A week of House speaker chaos revealed one thing about Donald Trump: He can't get his MAGA house in order. The drama started on Tuesday, and it wasn't until Friday that McCarthy managed to make headway in flipping members' votes. "The president needs to tell Kevin McCarthy that, 'Sir, you do not have the votes, and it's time to withdraw.'" House members who are responding to the MAGA base have no reason to fear Trump on this, he said.

☆ Justice Jackson working on a memoir, titled ‘Lovely One’
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is working on a memoir. Jackson, the first Black woman appointed to the court, is calling the book “Lovely One.”“Mine has been an unlikely journey,” Jackson said in a statement released Thursday by Random House. This memoir marries the public record of my life with what is less known. Jackson joined the court last year after President Joe Biden named her to succeed the retiring Stephen Breyer. Justice Amy Coney Barrett has a deal with the Penguin Random House imprint Sentinel.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., doesn't care that former President Donald Trump backs Kevin McCarthy for speaker of the House. "Endorsements don't matter to me," said Norman, one of 20 Republican holdouts who have blocked McCarthy, R-Calif., from winning the majority he needs on a series of deadlocked votes for House speaker. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., another anti-McCarthy voter, took umbrage at Trump calling recalcitrants on behalf of the beleaguered House GOP leader. "I think it actually needs to be reversed; the president needs to tell Kevin McCarthy that, sir, you do not have the votes, and it’s time to withdraw." "But I don't think when you have eyes on an institution for years and you've made up your mind, I don't think President Trump or anyone else is going" to change it.

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