Tag: supreme court

Biden announces another $5B in student loan forgiveness after Supreme Court defeat

WASHINGTON — President Biden said Friday that his administration is forgiving another $5 billion in student loan debt for 74,000 people using existing government programs — continuing his piecemeal approach to write-offs after the Supreme Court last year struck down his sweeping plan to forgive $430 billion in college debt.

The latest action brings Biden’s post-ruling loan forgiveness to about $137 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal tally — as the 81-year-old president tries to demonstrate that’s he’s making good on a campaign pledge as he seeks a second term in this year’s election.

Unlike the plan struck down by the Supreme Court in June, under which each borrower would have had $10,000 or $20,000 removed from their federal balances, the latest actions lean on implementation of laws passed with bipartisan support.

The latest beneficiaries include 44,000 teachers, nurses, firefighters and others who qualify for the reprieve after working for 10 years in careers defined as public service under a 2007 law signed by Republican President George W. Bush.

Another 30,000 people are having their debt forgiven because they were entered for 20 years into income-driven repayment plans that cap expenses as a percentage of earnings, according to the White House.

Income-driven repayment programs have been supported by both Republican and Democratic administrations.

“I won’t back down from using every tool at our disposal to get student loan borrowers the relief they need to reach their dreams,” the president said in a statement.

Biden’s nixed forgiveness plan was decried by critics as a political stunt because it was announced shortly before the 2022 midterm elections in response to an activist campaign after fellow Democrats, including then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said it wouldn’t be legal for him to wipe away student debt with the stroke of a pen.

Republican critics of Biden’s focus on loan forgiveness have called for action to stem the growth of college expenses as a way to reduce debt burden.

After leaving office as vice president, Biden was paid about $1 million to serve as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania from 2017 to 2019, despite making just nine known campus visits and not actually leading any classes.

In 2021, Biden picked Penn President Amy Gutmann, who had also provided him with a DC office where misplaced classified documents were later found, to be US ambassador to Germany.

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Google Said to Have Urged Supreme Court to Quash Android Antitrust Directives

Google has urged India’s Supreme Court to quash antitrust directives against it for abuse of the Android market, two sources said, as its presses its legal battle against the competition watchdog in one of its most important markets.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said in October that Google, whose Android mobile operating system powers 97 percent of the 600 million smartphones in India, had exploited its dominant position.

It ordered Google to remove restrictions imposed on device makers, including those related to the pre-installation of apps, and fined the US firm $163 million (nearly Rs. 1,300 crore), which it paid.

In March, an Indian tribunal gave partial relief to the Alphabet unit by setting aside four of the 10 directives in the case.

The tribunal said CCI’s findings of Google’s anti-competitive conduct were correct, but gave Google some relief by quashing some of the directives that forced it to alter its business model.

Google is now asking the Supreme Court to quash the remainder of the directives, the first source with direct knowledge said.

Google is also arguing in its filing made on Monday that it has not abused its market position and should not be liable to pay a penalty, the source added.

Google in a statement confirmed the Supreme Court filing, saying that it looked forward to presenting its case and demonstrating how Android benefited users and developers.

The Indian tribunal had ruled authorities must prove harm caused by anti-competitive behaviour “but did not apply this requirement” to several of CCI’s Android directives, Google said, explaining the rationale of its latest challenge.

Google’s Supreme Court challenge has not been previously reported.

The CCI too has approached the Supreme Court, seeking to reverse the tribunal’s decision to give Google partial relief, according to a third source. The CCI did not respond to a request for comment.

Google has been particularly concerned about India’s Android decision as the directives were seen as more sweeping than those imposed in the European Commission’s landmark 2018 ruling against the operating system.

Google had made sweeping changes to Android in India in recent months following the directive, including allowing device makers to license individual apps for pre-installation.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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‘Teacher’ Randi Weingarten’s ignorant, anti-democratic rant

Randi Weingarten — the nation’s top teacher, in a sense — seems ignorant of what any child could learn about government from “Schoolhouse Rock.”

The American Federation of Teachers boss made that painfully clear (and we mean painfully) Tuesday by launching into an unhinged tirade in front of the Supreme Court, as justices were hearing challenges to President Joe Biden’s college-loan-forgiveness plan.

“This is what really pisses me off,” she fumed, literally screaming and jumping. During the pandemic, “small businesses were hurting, and we helped them. . . . Big businesses were hurting, and we helped them. And it didn’t go to the Supreme Court.” Yet, “all of a sudden, when it’s about our students . . . the corporations challenge it, the student-loan lenders challenge it.”

Hello? Yes, federal aid helped businesses during the pandemic but only after Congress passed COVID rescue packages to keep the economy afloat. Neither President Donald Trump nor President Biden unilaterally ordered handouts to anyone.


The Supreme Court was hearing challenges to President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan.
REUTERS

Yet Weingarten (a lawyer as well as an educator!) claims it’s now fine for Biden to forgive hundreds of billions in debt from student loans without lawmakers’ say-so. And that it’s “not fair” for anyone to even challenge that in court.

If only she’d watched those “Schoolhouse Rock” shorts, explaining the separation of powers: Congress passes laws and holds Uncle Sam’s “purse strings.” If student loans are wiped out, that counts as a hit on the US Treasury, even if funds covering those balances (as much as $1 trillion) get rolled into the national debt, as they would.

The president is supposed to execute laws Congress passes; he can’t simply shower mountains of taxpayer dollars on whatever causes he chooses. And if he tries, Americans have every right to ask the courts to stop him.

Yet Biden didn’t even try for lawmakers’ OK on his debt-relief plan; he simply decided to bypass Congress altogether. That’s a thumb in the eye not just to the system but to lawmakers — and the voters who elected them.

Even Team Biden itself admitted he couldn’t act without Congress — until it suddenly changed its mind last year, claiming the power under a beyond-dubious reading of the post-9/11 HEROES Act, which offered relief to soldiers heading to war.

Look: A one-time erasure of student debt never made sense. It cheats those who never had such loans or had them but paid them off. And it benefits only a small group of Americans who, in many cases, won’t truly need the aid. And average taxpayers foot the bill.

But what’s really scary is that the national teachers-union head is so ignorant (or pretends to be) about how our democracy works. No wonder America’s schools are in such sorry shape.

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Supreme Court Rejects Stay on Amazon Prime’s Mirzapur Season 3, Calls Pre-Censorship of Web Series Impermissible

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked how can there be a pre-screening committee for web series, films or other programmes which are directly released on online platforms.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit observed that it always felt pre-censorship is impermissible.

“How can there be a pre-screening committee for web series? There is particular legislation. Unless you say OTT (over-the-top) is also a part of it… you must say that existing legislation must apply to OTT. Various questions will arise because transmission occurs from other countries”, the bench said.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by Mirzapur resident Sujeet Kumar Singh for setting up a pre-screening committee for web series, films or other programmes which are directly released on online platforms.

The top court also refused to stay the third season of the popular Mirzapur web series, which is currently under production.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had issued notices to makers and producers of the web series Mirzapur and Amazon Prime Video on a petition complaining about the portrayal of Mirzapur city in a bad light in the famous OTT series.

The PIL said that in the web series, makers have shown Mirzapur as a city of goons and adulteresses and such display malign the image as the city of Uttar Pradesh. It added that in the fictional series, Mirzapur has been displayed as being full of terror, crime, and other illegal activities.

Stating that the Mirzapur series has tarnished the historical and cultural image of the city, the petition stated that the OTT series is full of nudity, vulgarity, harassment and abusive language.

The petition sought the direction of the government of India to set up a screening committee for web series, films, or other programmes which are directly released on the online platform. “Ministry of I&B to make certificate mandatory from a government authority before releasing any web series, movies or programme,” plea added.

“The government of India should set up rules and regulations for series, movies and other programmes which are released on web platforms and must be censored like other movies before their release in theatres.” it said.

 

 

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Supreme Court hears arguments in key case on Alabama redistricting map

​The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday over whether Alabama’s new congressional map disenfranchises black voters — a case that could have repercussions across the country.​

At issue is a map of the state’s seven House districts based on the 2020 Census, which civil rights and other liberal groups contend dilutes the political power of black voters. 

Although blacks make up 27% of the state’s population, they are a majority in just one of the seven districts. 

A chapter of the NAACP, a group of Alabama voters and the multi-faith organization Greater Birmingham Ministries sued, saying the map concentrates black voters into a single district and disperses the remainder throughout the state.

The plaintiffs argue that the map hinders their ability to elect their preferred candidates and violates part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that bars discriminating against voters because of race.

Protesters oppose congressional redistricting because they say it disenfranchises black voters.
Getty Images
Black voters are the majority in only one of seven Alabama districts, despite accounting for 27% of the population.
AP

They want the map redrawn to create a second majority-black district. 

Alabama maintains that elections should remain “race neutral” and that creating another majority-black district would actually violate the Constitution by requiring “race-based sorting.”

A three-judge appeals court panel, which included two appointees of former President Donald Trump, ruled unanimously in January that the map likely violated the Voting Rights Act and agreed that two majority-black districts should be created for the 2022 elections. 

The Supreme Court in Washington D.C.
AFP via Getty Images

But the Supreme Court stayed the lower court’s ruling in February, with conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh insisting the order for a new map came down too close to the Nov. 8 midterm elections. 

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberal wing of the court in their dissent. 

Alabama wants the court to overturn the appeals court’s decision and keep the map in place until the 2030 Census necessitates a redrawn map.

With Post wires

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg auction brings in nearly $517K

A gold judicial collar made of glass beads that belonged to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has sold at auction for $176,775.

The piece was part of a collection of about 75 items of Ginsburg’s that were sold to benefit charity. In total, bidders paid nearly $517,000 for items in the online auction which ended Friday. Sunday marks the two-year anniversary of the liberal icon’s death at 87.

The judicial collar was the item with the highest purchase price, and its sale marks the first time any of the late justice’s signature neckwear has been available for purchase. Her family donated some of the justices’ most well-known collars to the Smithsonian.

In addition to the collar, other items that were auctioned included: a gavel that sold for $20,400, a pair of Ginsburg’s opera glasses that sold for $10,837.50 and a shawl that sold for $12,750. A pair of her black lace gloves sold for $16,575 while a cream pair sold for $12,750.

The auction was conducted by Bonhams, which also conducted an online auction of her books that brought in $2.3 million. In April, some 150 items — including art Ginsburg displayed in her home and office — raised more than $800,000 for Washington National Opera, one of the late justice’s passions.

Proceeds from the latest sale will fund an endowment in Ginsburg’s honor benefitting SOS Children’s Villages, an organization that supports vulnerable children around the world. Ginsburg’s daughter-in-law, Patrice Michaels, is on the organization’s advisory board.

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Supreme Court temporarily lets Yeshiva U block LGBTQ club

Yeshiva University can hold off on recognizing an LGBTQ student group as an official campus club as a result of a Friday order from the Supreme Court.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who oversees New York cases, stayed a state court order that barred the Orthodox Jewish university from blocking the group.

The court, in its order, indicated it would have more to say on the topic in the future.

Four current and former students filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court last April after the college denied multiple requests to officially register the group as a student club.

The plaintiffs argued that not allowing such a group to be recognized alongside more than 100 other student clubs was discriminatory and in violation of New York’s human rights law.

New York state judge Lynn Kotler ruled in the group’s favor in June — saying that Yeshiva is not a religious corporation according to its charter, a category exempt from the anti-discrimination state law, so must formally register the club.

New York state judge Lynn Kotler ruled in the group’s favor in June.
YU Pride Alliance

Higher state courts denied Yeshiva’s appeals to temporarily not recognize the club as the case is heard on its merits, prompting the university to file its petition with SCOTUS.

“We are pleased with Justice Sotomayor’s ruling which protects our religious liberty and identity as a leading faith-based academic institution,” said Rabbi Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University.

“But make no mistake, we will continue to strive to create an environment that welcomes all students, including those of our LGBTQ community,” said Berman — who added that the administration is in dialogue with students, faculty and Rabbis about creating an “inclusive campus” in accordance with religious values.

Mordechai Levovitz, clinical director at Jewish Queer Youth and a Yeshiva University alum, slammed the university as an “authoritative voice” and questioned the legality of the school’s decision to not recognize the group.

Four current and former students filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court last April.
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“There are 613 laws in the torah,” said Mordechai Levovitz, clinical director at Jewish Queer Youth and a Yeshiva University alum. “Which law does accepting a club of queer people, which law applies to that? Yeshiva is supposed to be a school that teaches Jewish law.”

“Yeshiva U is an authoritative voice,” said Levovitz. “They have declared that the recognition of queer people being able to gather, find camaraderie in each other, feel a sense of pride is a religious violation.”

“This is not about sex — this is about teens wanting to eat lunch together and talk about issues pertaining to them,” he added.

Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at The Becket Fund, representing the university, said: “Yeshiva shouldn’t have been forced to go all the way to the Supreme Court to receive such a commonsense ruling in favor of its First Amendment rights.”

The Becket Fund has been involved in other high-profile religious freedom cases, including a Jewish group that sued former Gov. Andrew Cuomo over COVID-19 restrictions, and Hobby Lobby stores that opposed a mandate to provide contraceptives to employees on religious grounds, according to its website.

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