The majority then announced, with an opinion from Chief Justice John Roberts, that it was overthrowing the student loan forgiveness program, granting a request from six Republican state attorneys general on behalf of a loan servicer, the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, that did not want to be used as a plaintiff. Without MOHELA, the states did not have standing to bring the suit—they are not directly harmed.
Roberts and the majority weren’t going to be bothered by the fact that their plaintiff was an unwilling participant in this highly partisan scheme. “By law and function, MOHELA is an instrumentality of Missouri … The [debt forgiveness] plan will cut MOHELA’s revenues, impairing its efforts to aid Missouri college students,” Roberts wrote. “This acknowledged harm to MOHELA in the performance of its public function is necessarily a direct injury to Missouri itself.”
Never mind that in oral arguments the state admitted that MOHELA wasn’t aiding Missouri college students because it hadn’t paid into that fund in 15 years, and “said in its own financial documents that it doesn’t plan to make any payments in the future.”
I acknowledge that I have a choice to shut up and let you all talk. I’m choosing not to do that, because I disagree. I have realized over the last few years that either side of a debate shutting up and walking away is the beginning of the echo chamber, and buffoonery follows soon after. It doesn’t matter which side it’s on.
I absolutely support what the Supreme Court is doing, standing in opposition to other parts of the government, taking real action to preserve the status quo or to make changes according to their view of the Constitution. That’s their job. If you don’t like it, then yes, please, vote in your local elections for candidates doing the things you believe. Because eventually, either we’re going to get back to bipartisanship, or we will see secession happen again. I expect to pick up my life within the next few years and move to another state in the US because I disagree with the policies of my local government, and that’s fine; let the people who are happy stay and the disgruntled depart if they’ve tried to effect change and haven’t seen it work. But over time, we’ll either need to keep building walls or rebuild bridges.
It’s up to all of us, not just here online but in the country as a whole, to choose - which will you help to build, a wall or a bridge? Will you understand the values and reasoning of those you currently oppose, understand the motivation for their actions; and try to find actions where you have commonality of motive? Or will you just plug your ears, stay in the echo chamber, declare your tribe good and the other evil, and prepare for a war?
I’d like to say I want to work with others, but I’ve been burned many times when I tried. I am angry, hurt, and probably suffering from trauma. I don’t mind right now that others feel that pain. I am occasionally conscious that it is wrong to find happiness in the suffering of others; but I can’t deny what I feel. I think that’s a problem a lot of people have, across the country.
The Supreme Court is not at all out of control. It’s reflecting the feelings and trauma of a massive number of Americans and American communities. The Court is judicially surfacing long-standing emotional wounds that have been drawn into focus. They’re fully under control. They’re doing the right job.