Biden’s student-loan relief plan gets expanded review from Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court expanded a planned showdown over President Joe Biden’s student-loan relief plan, saying it will hear arguments from two borrowers who contend they are being unfairly excluded from the full scope of the program.
The court was already set to hear arguments early next year from six Republican-led states that say the president lacked authority to issue the sweeping plan. The new challenge also contends the Education Department took an improper procedural shortcut by not letting the public comment on the plan before finalizing it.
The plan, which could cost an estimated $400 billion, would forgive as much as $20,000 in federal loans for certain borrowers making less than $125,000 per year or $250,000 for households. About 26 million people requested forgiveness before the Education Department stopped accepting applications, and the administration says more than 40 million Americans would be eligible.
Lower courts have blocked the plan, and the Supreme Court indicated earlier this month it will keep the program on hold until it rules. The justices said they will hear arguments in late February or early March. Student loan payment obligations will remain paused until the case is resolved, the White House has said.
—Bloomberg News
On same-sex marriage, ‘the country has caught up with California’
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — More than 18 years after Gavin Newsom defied federal law by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples as San Francisco mayor, President Joe Biden is on the cusp of signing legislation that ensures gay marriages are recognized by the federal government and in every state in the nation.
When he signs the historic bill this week, another Californian will probably be standing beside him: Vice President Kamala Harris, who played a key role in the long fight for marriage equality as state attorney general.
The moment will mark a powerful, if imperfect, validation of early political risk-taking by Newsom and Harris — two of California’s most prominent Democrats, who were at the vanguard of what became an overwhelming shift in how Americans think about civil rights, family and love.
“What this bill signing indicates is that the country has caught up with California,” said Melissa Michelson, a political science professor at Menlo College who specializes in LGBTQ politics. “When California elected officials go out on a limb on these issues, it can be that this is what’s coming for the country, not just because it’s such a big and powerful state, but because we kind of have our finger on the pulse of the future.”
—Los Angeles Times
Elon Musk declares his pronouns are ‘Prosecute/Fauci’ — and science claps back
Scientists heaped scorn on Twitter owner Elon Musk after he suggested Sunday that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, deserved to be prosecuted — while belittling the inclusive use of pronouns, to boot. “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Musk blurted to his 21 million Twitter followers.
The broadside came without context, but appeared to be aimed at fueling right-wing conspiracies about Fauci’s role in handling the COVID pandemic. Fauci, the chief White House medical adviser, has been vilified by the likes of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and many others on the right.
Epidemiologists and many others immediately leaped to Fauci’s defense. “For the record: Dr. Fauci has done nothing wrong, except serve our nation,” tweeted vaccine scientist and professor of virology Dr. Peter Hotez.
“In the meantime, Mr. Musk should know that 200,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives from COVID due to this kind of anti-science rhetoric and disinformation,” he added. “Elon, I’m asking you to take down this Tweet.”
—New York Daily News
Putin skips annual news conference as his war in Ukraine falters
Russian President Vladimir Putin is dropping his annual marathon press conference for the first time in a decade, as his forces continue to stumble in their war in Ukraine.
“There won’t be one before New Year,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Monday, without explanation, in response to a question about the event. The president would try to “find an opportunity” instead to talk to journalists, Peskov said.
Putin has held the end-of-year news conference each December since he returned to the presidency in 2012, drawing hundreds of journalists from across Russia and representatives of foreign media to Moscow for the televised live event that usually ran for well in excess of three hours.
He’s avoiding it this year amid repeated retreats by Russian forces in his nearly 10-month-long war in Ukraine and tensions over the September call-up of 300,000 conscripts in Russia’s first military mobilization since World War II.
—Bloomberg News
