it is topsy-turvy live news event kind of day. case in point, in a matter of about two minutes, we expect to hear from president biden. he will address the nation live on a number of topics, not the least of which is the abrupt stepback our country took today away from fairness and progress toward intolerance and discrimination. the conservative supreme court ruled 6-3 in favor of a colorado web designer, an evangelical named lori smith who refused to work on same sex weddings. the court said that the first amendment protected her from punishment. and it is a turning point decision that will flip the state of equal protections on its head and allow business owners to likewise evade punishment under similar laws in 29 states. and in the longer term, it could again signal a threat to the landmark decision of the 2015 case establishing the case of same sex couples to marry. and if you are wondering of the same sex couple, what they are doing, after being denied basic human decen
this. but then chief justice roberts wrote this in his decision writing for the majority today. he said it would be odd to think that separation of powers concerns evaporate simply because the governor is providing a monetary benefit rather than imposing obligations. we ll dig into this decision here this afternoon. the president says for his part and we are about to hear from him live, that the fight is not over. i will stop at nothing to find other ways to deliver relief to hard-working middle class families. the supreme court also ruling today that a christian website e and her attorney. very interesting words from justice gorsuch on this. saying you can t compel someone to act. you can t coerce them to act against their religious beliefs. so we re going to talk about that in a moment. first, let s bring in betsy devos. a couple of huge decisions that are related to education have come down from the highest court in the land. betsy, great to have you with us. thanks for
reporter: there s certainly more people out here today than we ve seen in days past, especially because today we know exactly what we will get decisions on because it s the last day. you mentioned those two big cases, of course at the end of pride month. that case that has to do with whether or not a web designer can refuse to design a wedding website for a gay couple. we could see some reaction to that. the biggest one we re watching for is on student loans, whether or not biden s student loan forgiveness program will stand. the biden administration was using a congressional act started after 9/11 in 2003. it was continued through the pandemic, even invoke bid betsy devoss under the trump administration. can student loans be forgiven in their entirety forever? this would affect about 43,000 people, sorry, we re starting to get some decisions just in now. so i m going to go listen for what those are, and i said 43,000, that s 43 million people, and i ll be back to you when
should remind everybody we are awaiting the decision in the student loan forgiveness plan case as well. this is another quote, today is a sad day in american constitutional law and in the lives of lgbt people. the supreme court of the united states declares that a particular kind of business, though open to the public, has a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class. the court does so for the first time in its history. melissa, what do you think this does to the legitimacy of the supreme court. we already know that the supreme court has hit record low approval with the american public, has the lowest public confidence rating on record. where does it go from here? well, when you have six, ana, they let you do what you like. this is a court that is unrestrained by congress, unrestrained by any rules. it has no recourse with regards
wouldn t let you do. first, i am incredibly grateful for the court s decision. that affirms that the government cannot force anyone to say something that they don t believe. this journey started over seven years ago when i was being censored and my speech was being compelled by the state of colorado. i want to create websites that are consistent with my marriage and the state of colorado said you must set aside your views. i decided to take a stand for freedom, to protect speech. i know if i want free speech for myself, that i must protect it for others and i m grateful that the court has protected speech for all, whether your view on marriage is similar to mine or perhaps different. free speech is for everyone. martha: this is from justice sotomayor s dissent in this case. she wrote today s a sad day in american constitutional law and in the lives of lgbt people. by issuing this new license to discriminate in a case brought