This is based off an email conversation with a friend, I've adapted to make a bit more readable.
Did Biden create a Constitutional crisis by relieving student debt after the Supreme Court ruled against it?
The Supreme Court struck down the Biden student loan forgiveness program in a 6-3 decision.
It was not a unanimous decision, there was a related decision that was unanimous - Department of Education v. Brown, which was essentially two people suing to stop student loan forgiveness and the Supreme Court ruled they didn't have standing because they weren't harmed.
Next, I don't think Biden was in violation of the Supreme Court order with the subsequent loan forgiveness. Here's an article that discusses, I believe the key points are:
"The cancellations have come through existing federal student loan forgiveness programs, which are limited to specific categories of borrowers, such as public-sector workers, people defrauded by for-profit colleges, and borrowers who have paid for at least 20 years."
It appears that Biden accelerated / made sure people were taking advantage of these existing programs. There's a retired Navy captain I follow (
https://conservativewahoo.substack.com/) who made the point that a President can't just declare I want "X" done and then ignore it and expect it to happen - the President has to follow up, keep pushing etc. That's what happened with student loans - not a violation of a Supreme Court order but a President checking in and having his team find every legal way to cancel existing student loans. Reasonable people can disagree about the policy, but it does not seem to be a violation of a Supreme Court ruling.
Forum shopping for lawsuits
I agree forum shopping is bad - for example, when that Texas judge overruled the FDA decision and attempted to ban the drug mifepristone, that was objectively terrible. It almost goes without saying that it was unscientific. I have followed Supreme Court decisions over the years, especially relating to science, and the way they write and talk (oral arguments) about science is horrifying to me and other scientists. They horribly mangle the science and over simplify to justify what are essentially political choices they want to make. Another example of this is when a court case on redistricting reached the Supreme Court, I remember listening to the oral arguments, some of the justices were twisting themselves in knots to be deliberately obtuse about the simple math that was being presented.
We appear to both agree forum shopping is bad, but can you tell me how else do cases get to the Supreme Court? I think the vast majority are via appeal. Hence we have the protocol of a lower court making a ruling, and then temporary injunctions while it makes its way up to the Supreme Court.
Constitutional crisis
Here's a list of the ways in which the Trump administration is currently actively and deliberately violating the Constitution:
- violating habeas corpus and due process
- 14th amendment clearly states that everyone in the US has the right to due process / laws of the US
- Executive orders / DOGE canceling funding that Congress authorized
- Executive order cancelling birthright citizenship
- "The law firm Perkins Coie sued the Department of Justice and other government agencies over President Trump’s Mar. 6, 2025 executive order (EO) terminating government contracts, denying members of the firm access to federal employees, and suspending employees’ security clearances. A federal judge granted Perkins Coie’s request to temporarily block several sections of the EO"
- the SAVE act which specifies how states identify people who are legal to vote - it is explicit in the Constitution that States run elections
- kicking the Associated Press out of White House briefings - violates right to free press
- targeting DEI programs - violates right to free speech
- Deporting people because of what they have said and wrote - violates right to free speech
One thing that strikes me - if they have removed due process for anyone, they've removed it for *everyone*. If they want to send me a prison in El Salvador, they just grab me off the street and send me off, and then claim I wasn't actually a citizen and I was in fact a gang leader (or whatever). Because of those claims I now have no way to prove otherwise.
Destruction of US Science
Are you away of the damage Trump has done to US science in the less than 3 months? It is absolutely shattered. UMass Chan medical school cancelled the incoming class of Ph.D. scientists because of the cancelled funding. Repeat this over and over and over again at every major medical research institution across the country. Same applies for every branch of science (NSF funding cuts). These are ridiculously small sums of money in the scope of the Federal budget, and they have been the engine of technological advancement of the US for many decades. And it's all unconstitutional, because these funds were enacted by Congress.
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