The flurry of opinions issued last week included one that bolstered the ability of employees to obtain accommodations at work for their religious practices, SCOTUSblog reports. The justices ruled unanimously in Groff v. Dejoy to revive a lawsuit by a Christian former mail carrier who accused the U.S. Postal Service of discrimination after being disciplined for refusing to work on Sundays. The case now goes back to the lower court for additional proceedings.

By a vote of 6-3 last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration overstepped its authority last year when it announced it would cancel up to $400 billion in student loans. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court in Biden v. Nebraska, characterizing the decision as a straightforward interpretation of federal law, SCOTUSblog reports. Justice Elena Kagan dissented in an opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The Hill notes that Roberts included a note at the end of the majority opinion defending the legitimacy of the court and calling attacks on its "proper role" as "disturbing." Before issuing its ruling in the case brought by Nebraska and five other states, the court ruled unanimously in Department of Education v. Brown that two individual borrowers lacked standing to challenge the plan. Responding to the ruling, President Joe Biden this afternoon announced new plans to offer loan forgiveness through the Higher Education Act, which allows the education secretary to “compromise, waive or release” students loans. A public hearing on the plan is set for July 18. Biden also announced a repayment program for borrowers who miss payments when they resume this fall, The Hill reports.

The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled 6-3 in favor of a website designer who did not want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples. The court found that enforcement of a Colorado anti-discrimination law against the designer was a violation of her First Amendment right to free speech, SCOTUSblog reports. Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch also indicated that the court’s decision would provide similar protection to other business owners whose services involve speech, such as artists, speechwriters and movie directors. In their dissent, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson called the decision “a sad day in the American constitutional law and in the lives of LGBTQ people.” Read the decision in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis.

By a vote of 6-3 today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration overstepped its authority last year when it announced it would cancel up to $400 billion in student loans. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court in Biden v. Nebraska, characterizing the decision as a straightforward interpretation of federal law, SCOTUSblog reports. Justice Elena Kagan dissented in an opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The Hill notes that Roberts included a note at the end of the majority opinion defending the legitimacy of the court and calling attacks on its "proper role" as "disturbing." Before issuing its ruling in the case brought by Nebraska and five other states, the court ruled unanimously in Department of Education v. Brown that two individual borrowers lacked standing to challenge the plan. Responding to the ruling, President Joe Biden this afternoon announced new plans to offer loan forgiveness through the Higher Education Act, which allows the education secretary to “compromise, waive or release” students loans. A public hearing on the plan is set for July 18. Biden also announced a repayment program for borrowers who miss payments when they resume this fall, The Hill reports.

The Supreme Court today overturned decades of affirmative action programs used in the admissions process by colleges and universities across the U.S. The Hill reports that the majority opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, invalidated admissions practices used by Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, finding that they did not comply with the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. Roberts wrote, “Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping and lack meaningful end points.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned the dissenting opinion, stating that the ruling’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment is “grounded in the illusion that racial inequality was a problem of a different generation. ... Ignoring race will not equalize a society that is racially unequal.”

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a 6-3 decision authored by Chief Justice John Roberts that state courts can act as a check on their legislatures in redistricting and other issues affecting federal elections, reports the Associated Press. The ruling dismissed the “independent state legislature” theory, which would have given state lawmakers nearly unchecked power over federal elections. The ruling also upheld a decision by the North Carolina Supreme Court that struck down a congressional districting plan as excessively partisan under state law.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin announced that the committee will mark up ethics legislation for the U.S. Supreme Court in July. The ABA Journal reports that Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, tweeted Wednesday that the Supreme Court “is in an ethical crisis of its own making.” Currently, federal trial-level and appellate judges — but not Supreme Court justices — are bound by the Code of Conduct for United States Judges. In February, the ABA House of Delegates called on the Supreme Court to adopt a binding code of ethics for its justices that is similar to the code for other federal judges.

In an 8-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday ruled that states cannot challenge the Biden administration’s guidelines for when to deport migrants from the country. The Hill reports that the suit from Texas and Louisiana challenged the Department of Homeland Security's immigration enforcement policies, which includes guidelines for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to prioritize certain immigrants for detention and deportation. The policy urges agents to focus on the most serious and violent criminals for deportation.

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision upheld the conviction of a federal prisoner on Thursday who was challenging his 27-year prison sentence for violating federal gun laws. Marcus DeAngelo Jones argued that he should be allowed another chance to get his conviction thrown out following a 2019 Supreme Court decision where the justices ruled prosecutors must prove that people charged with violating federal gun laws knew they were not allowed to have a weapon, the Associated Press reported. 

The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a suit on Thursday by the Navajo Nation that would have required the federal government to develop a plan to secure water access for the tribe on reservation lands in the southwest, reported Reuters. The tribe claimed more than 30% of households on the Navajo reservation currently lack running water. The 5-4 decision ruled that an 1868 peace treaty between the U.S. and the tribe did not require the federal government to take steps to secure water. The ruling reversed a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that had permitted the Navajo Nation's lawsuit against the U.S. Interior Department ruling the government had a "duty to protect and preserve the Nation's right to water."