CNN
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President Joe Biden was not scheduled to take questions Thursday. His helicopter was waiting outside on the South Lawn of the White House.
But after a 10-minute statement about the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling, a CNN reporter yelled, “Is this a rogue court?” The president stopped in his tracks.
Pausing to think for a moment, he looked over his shoulder. “This is no ordinary court,” he said before leaving.
This week’s monumental resolutions — repealing affirmative action in college admissions and dismantling Biden’s student debt relief plan among them — represent serious setbacks for a president who promised as a candidate to advance the ‘racial equity and erasing student debt.
They are also an urgent reminder to Democrats of the election’s lasting consequences at a time when Biden’s advisers are looking for ways to inject enthusiasm into his bid for another term.
It is unknown what impact it will have on the upcoming elections. But Biden and his team have already begun blaming Republicans for dismantling programs that have benefited young, college-educated and minority voters — all critical components of the Democratic coalition Biden will need to mobilize if he hopes to win reelection.
That three justices from the court’s conservative majority were appointed by President Donald Trump, both Biden’s predecessor and, according to polls, his most likely opponent next year, creates even more momentum for Biden to use the rulings as a fight politics as a campaign. it warms up
“The Supreme Court’s excesses will be counterproductive,” said Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-New York. “You know, the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade reduced what was supposed to be a red tide in the 2022 election cycle to nothing more than a red trickle. So the Supreme Court’s decision is not only a bad law, it’s also bad policy and it will come back to haunt the Republican Party.”
Speaking to a group of Democratic donors in New York City on Thursday evening, Biden sought to underscore the stakes of the court’s new supermajority, a preview of how it will frame the issue over the coming year.
“The Supreme Court is becoming not only conservative, but almost, it’s like a step back. It’s like a step back, some of the decisions they’re making,” Biden told donors in a private dining room inside the Seagram Building. “Did you ever think that we would be in a position, after 50 years of recognizing the right to privacy in the Constitution, to suggest that there is no such thing as a right to privacy?”
Despite his criticism of the court, Biden has rejected some liberal suggestions about reforming the panel. He opposes expanding the number of judges on the court and has not accepted term limits.
“If we start the process of trying to expand the court, we’re going to politicize it, maybe forever, in a way that’s not healthy,” Biden said during a friendly interview on MSNBC shortly after Thursday’s ruling on affirmative action.
Biden’s student loan plan, which emerged last year after months of agonizing internal debate over its costs and eligibility criteria, was intended to free low- and middle-income Americans from a crippling debt.
Throughout the process, Biden expressed concern about being seen as a giveaway to the rich. Eventually, pressure to fulfill one of his major campaign promises led to the plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt for certain borrowers.
For months, the White House has said publicly that there was no backup plan if the Supreme Court struck down the student debt relief program. But behind the scenes, senior White House officials were working for several weeks to fulfill a simple directive from the president to “be prepared in case the Supreme Court doesn’t do the right thing,” White House officials said.
The president’s charge to his team was described as: “If the court ruled against the program, find other ways to provide relief to as many working and middle-class borrowers as possible, taking into account all the legal issues.”
In recent weeks, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients has gathered his team for weekly meetings to map out all the scenarios for the Supreme Court’s ruling and explore all available legal avenues after the president telling his team to create a “fully developed response”. ” to all possible sentences, officials said.
Zient’s office, led by Deputy Chief of Staff Natalie Quillian, the Domestic Policy Council, the National Economic Council and the White House Office of Counsel, worked with the Department of Education and the Department of Justice to propose options that the administration could take if the sentence were. not in your favor.
“All of these meetings were structured around one question: How could we provide relief to as many borrowers as we could, as quickly as possible under any possible Supreme Court outcome,” the official said.
The White House also stayed in touch with and sent suggestions for next steps to debt relief advocacy groups and congressional allies throughout the process. Lawyers from the White House, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Education reviewed all of the recommendations, including the administration’s actions and the legal authorities available to the administration, and ultimately developed responses for various scenarios .
At the White House, some officials had held out hope that the court would uphold Biden’s student debt program, pointing to some surprising decisions in recent weeks that saw some conservative justices join liberals on voting rights issues and congressional redistricting.
But even Biden acknowledged after the court’s oral arguments in February that he wasn’t sure the ruling would go his way.
“I’m sure we’re on the right side of the law,” Biden told CNN in March when asked if he was confident the administration would prevail in the case. “I’m still not sure of the outcome of the decision.”
His instinct was right. The president was in the Oval Office on Friday morning when he was briefed on the Supreme Court’s decision by his top aides and then held meetings late into the afternoon to fine-tune his response after the ruling was not favorable.
Ultimately, the president directed his team to move forward with a new plan, which includes pursuing a new path to debt relief through the authorities in the Higher Education Act of 1965, which was promoted by some groups debt relief advocates and progressive lawmakers, as well as creating a temporary 12-month “repayment ramp” program for federal student loan borrowers when payments resume in October.
A day earlier, Biden was watching the news on television when the court handed down the affirmative action decision, according to an official. A team from the White House counsel’s office came to brief him on the ruling.
“In our conversations with the White House about why student debt cancellation was needed, it’s about reducing the racial wealth gap,” said Wisdom Cole, national director of the Youth and College Division of the NAACP “If the administration is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, it needs to use every tool in its toolbox. Every legal authority to ensure we see relief.”
Demonstrating the urgency to respond to the court’s actions was a key goal as the White House prepared for both rulings, according to people familiar with the matter.
On the preparations came the impression left after last year’s Supreme Court ruling that the Biden administration was unprepared for the decision that struck down abortion rights nationwide, despite a leaked court opinion months earlier that indicated the justices were poised to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The White House has strongly denied that she was caught having an abortion and has pointed to actions taken in the months since the decision to expand access, including medication abortion.
The issue proved galvanizing for Democratic voters in November’s midterm elections and has fueled Democratic victories even in traditionally Republican districts.
Whether the court’s ruling on student debt relief and affirmative action can have a similar effect will be critical in the coming year as Biden works to convince voters that he is still struggling to deliver on his promises. The initial reaction of progressive Democrats was positive.
“It wasn’t a foregone conclusion that the president would act so quickly today. But he announced an alternative path to student debt cancellation using his authority from the Higher Education Act given by Congress, and that deserves praise ” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Institute.
