President Joe Biden has been at odds with the Supreme Court various times throughout his presidency.
One of Biden’s most sweeping proposals, unilateral debt forgiveness, was struck down by the high court last year as unconstitutional, but the president has still attempted to cancel some outstanding student loan debt through other means.
Following years of harmony between Democratic presidents and the high court, a 6-3 Republican-appointed majority cemented in place by former President Donald Trump has put Biden at odds with the justices more often.
Here are three times Biden’s agenda was in conflict with the Supreme Court during his term.
Student Loans
In a June 2023 decision, the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s attempt to forgive $400 billion in student debt in a 6-3 decision, with the Democratic-appointed justices in the minority. In a plan announced in August 2022, Biden had attempted to use the HEROES Act to forgive up to $20,000 of student loans for people holding federal loans.
Since the decision striking down his attempt to cancel student loan debt unilaterally, Biden has crafted several smaller, targeted cancelation plans. On Wednesday, the White House announced it would give student loan relief to 153,000 borrowers who owe $1.2 billion.
Abortion
Abortion policy saw a massive shake-up when the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade with its June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Biden strongly opposed the decision, which gave the authority to craft abortion laws back to the states. Biden and Democrats claimed the Supreme Court had taken away a “constitutional right.”
Biden has worked to make abortion a key topic of the 2024 election to get out the vote and has called for a restoration to the abortion policy in the Roe decision.
Energy Policy
The Supreme Court has restricted the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority through various decisions in recent years, causing frustration for the president.
A 2022 decision by the high court saw the justices decide 6-3 that the EPA did not have sweeping powers under the Clean Air Act and argued the legislature had yet to vest several of the powers the agency claimed it had over emissions.
Another decision by the Supreme Court in 2023 scaled back the EPA’s ability to regulate the “waters of the United States” broadly under the Clean Air Act.
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The decisions have stripped away broad authority the EPA had been claiming to enact much of Biden’s climate agenda.
Another Supreme Court decision at odds with the Biden agenda could be brewing as the high court hears challenges on the EPA’s “good neighbor” rule for limiting cross-state pollution on Wednesday.