Presidents have ignored rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States for quite some time. In order that you understand the context of events, the following paragraphs offer some perspective. The Supreme Court of the United States, in 1832, decided the case Worcester v. Georgia (31 U.S. 515). The question before the court was: Does the state of Georgia have the authority to regulate the intercourse between citizens of its state and members of the Cherokee Nation?
The answer was: No.
“In an opinion delivered by Chief Justice John Marshall, the Court held that the Georgia act, under which Worcester was prosecuted, violated the Constitution, treaties, and laws of the United States. Noting that the “treaties and laws of the United States contemplate the Indian territory as completely separated from that of the states; and provide that all intercourse with them shall be carried on exclusively by the government of the union,” Chief Justice Marshall argued, “The Cherokee nation, then, is a distinct community occupying its own territory in which the laws of Georgia can have no force. The whole intercourse between the United States and this nation, is, by our constitution and laws, vested in the government of the United States.” The Georgia act thus interfered with the federal government’s authority and was unconstitutional.
From Quora: “Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States, ignored the Supreme Court decision in the case of Worcester v. Georgia, which ruled that the state of Georgia did not have the authority to enforce laws within Cherokee territory. Jackson disregarded the decision and continued with the forced removal of Native American tribes from their ancestral lands, leading to the tragic event known as the Trail of Tears. Jackson’s actions reflected his belief in the supremacy of federal power and his commitment to the policy of Indian removal. This disregard for the Supreme Court’s decision set a controversial precedent for the relationship between the executive branch and the judiciary in matters of Native American rights and land sovereignty.”
There is no Supreme Court police force. The decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States rely upon the respect and good nature of our government’s leaders to uphold their decisions. President Andrew Jackson ignored the Supreme Court and removed Native Americans from their territories, on the “Trail of Tears” where (according to tribal and military records) 100,000 Native Americans were forced from their homes and 15,000 died during their relocation, thus, the name “Trail of Tears.”
But there is more. Presidential Proclamation 94 of September 24, 1862, by President Abraham Lincoln, suspended the writ of habeas corpus. So you know: The writ of habeas corpus is “a writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, especially to secure the person’s release unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention.” According to Article 1, Section 9, Claus 2, our Constitution states: “The Privileges of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended unless when Cases of Rebellion or Invasion of the public Safety may require it.”
Under President Lincoln, opposition to the Civil War via demonstration or media (in those days newspapers and pamphlets) could land you in prison with no way to get out, having no right for your case to go before a court, or to be adjudicated. According to Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, the lowest estimate is 13,335 imprisoned from February 15, 1862 to the end of the war.
Why all of this?
Because a president ignoring the law of the land, our Constitution, or the Supreme Court of the United States is not without precedent.
Just so you know, Chief Justice Roger B.Taney of a federal circuit court ruled Lincoln didn’t have the right to suspend habeas corpus. Lincoln lifted the suspension shortly before the cases were to be reviewed by the SCOTUS; he knew he would lose.
Enter our current president, Joe Biden. On June 30, 2023, in the ruling of Biden, President of the United States, et.al. v. Nebraska et.al. No. 22-506, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the President of the United States did not have the right to cancel student loans.
To quote SCOTUS: “The Secretary asserts that the HEROES Act grants him the authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan principal. It does not. We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to “waive or modify” existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, not to rewrite that statute from the ground up.”
In an act of brazen disobedience and insolence, the Biden Administration is offering student loan forgiveness… again.
On February 21, 2024 the Department of Education said: “The Biden-Harris Administration today is announcing that it will automatically discharge $1.2 billion in loans for nearly 153,000 borrowers who are eligible for the shortened time to forgiveness benefit under President Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan. This action comes as 7.5 million borrowers are now enrolled in SAVE, 4.3 million of whom have a $0 monthly payment.”
What fool thinks that all of this unpaid money will just be filed away? Citizens will have to pay this back; there isn’t some magic wand that the Biden Administration can wave and it all just goes away. So who will pay this back? How about all of the working class laborers who couldn’t afford college, since all of this debt will just be transferred into the national debt.
The students who attained higher, professional degrees after finishing their undergraduate work, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year will be forgiven that debt. This is patently unfair, to both those who didn’t attend college (who will be paying anyway) as well as to those who worked their way through college and paid their tuition.
Anyone claiming that the Democrats are the party of the working class is now officially a blatant liar.
The elites of society with advanced degrees will now have even more money for their trust funds, in that they won’t have to pay for their undergraduate degrees, while the blue-collar workers who didn’t go on Spring Break and weekend parties, who toiled their way through young adulthood, will face an even bigger tax burden.
President Biden needs the vote of the young people who owe college debt, and this is a clear case of buying their votes. After all, let’s vote for Uncle Joe, who now just handed us thousands of dollars. One other monstrous problem is that colleges have become far too expensive in the last few decades, and since students with loans have funded their spendthrift ways, they have virtually no incentive to lower tuition. Thanks a lot, Joe, you just made college even more expensive, by paying off loans that would have created an incentive for colleges to become more efficient and lower their tuition.
The fact that the government will eventually forgive the debts of students guarantees colleges will see the government as a cash cow and keep on raising tuition. This is a handout to many people who don’t need it, and a burden on the backs of those who don’t qualify as elites. Nothing like keeping that working class in their place, huh Joe? The United States is trillions of dollars in debt, but those who borrowed money for college get to wipe their slates clean, and, if history is any indicator, indulge in even more debts that they will hope to be forgiven as well.
So what will Donald Trump think of this-besides regretting that he didn’t think of it first?
The next time the Supreme Court makes a decision he doesn’t like, he can just do as he pleases, since the example has been set. Of course, it’s all for the people, a rationalization that could possibly create an even greater conflict than the one of January 6.
Claiming that we are a nation of laws has lost its solemnity; we are a nation that obeys laws when they suit us, and ignores them when following them is uncomfortable.
We are not living up to our potential, we are kneeling down to our divertissements.
