Biden’s latest gaffe on student loan bailout plan may come back to haunt him if it lands in the hands of the Supreme Court. The Democrats are in the process of writing the majority opinion of the case, arguing the Republican-led Congress is wrong for using a spending clause to circumvent the Constitution.
Senators and House members have been waiting for a ruling in the court case, which is challenging a $700 billion rescue package of student loans that House Republicans and the White House designed as a last-ditch effort to avoid a government shutdown.
Now they may hold court over Biden’s remarks.
“The Supreme Court is about to step in and tell the House that they’ve overstepped their bounds,” said the Rev. Billy Talenauer, a professor at the University at Albany, SUNY.
The case centers on how Congress can use a spending clause to suspend a constitutional prohibition on spending. The Supreme Court could either invalidate the spending or the suspension clause and send the case back to the lower courts for further rulings.
But it’s not entirely clear the case will be allowed to get that far.
“It’s not clear to me that the Supreme Court has any authority to rule on this, or that the courts have any jurisdiction to rule this issue,” said former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Ginsburg, who has been a vocal critic of the case, had some advice for Biden.
“This issue is not even close to being a Supreme Court issue,” she said. “It is a civil suit at the lower court level and has absolutely no impact on the Supreme Court itself.”
She also had some words for Biden’s campaign team.
“I hope that the Biden campaign is well aware that Joe Biden has a lot of very powerful supporters and advisers at the White House,” she said. “And I hope that the Biden campaign is very cognizant that that is what has happened here.”