Supreme Court
June 30th, 2023 2 Minute Read Press Release by Ilya Shapiro

Ilya Shapiro Reacts to This Morning’s Supreme Court Decisions on Wedding Website, Student Loans

NEW YORK, NY – This morning, the Supreme Court issued decisions in three cases, including 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis and Biden v. NebraskaIlya Shapiro, senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, offers the following reactions.

Statement on 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis:

“As one of only three lawyers in the country to have filed briefs supporting both Jim Obergefell in the marriage cases and Jack Phillips (the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop), I’m gratified to see the Court so fully recognize that in the land of the free, the government shouldn’t be able to force people to say something they disagree with. Those who liken this case to the denial of service at restaurants and hotels during Jim Crow either don’t understand the nature of public-accommodations laws or are being disingenuous to score cheap political points—or both. Particularly for something so personal as a wedding, people should hire graphic designers (and singers, and other expressive professionals) who can pour their hearts into the celebration, rather than forcing someone to bend the knee to rigid orthodoxy.”

Statement on Biden v. Nebraska:

“The only question in this case was whether anyone had standing to bring it. The Court’s standing doctrine, even as we’ve seen it the last two weeks, is all over the place, but I’m glad they reached the merits here. As we argued in our amicus brief, this assumption of awesome power by the executive based on semantic games with the words of a statute that can’t reasonably be read to allow it is no different than the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, CDC’s eviction moratorium, and OSHA’s vaccine mandate, all actions the Supreme Court invalidated. Of course, even President Biden recognized that, before he went along with it as a political ploy ahead of the 2022 midterms—and so that now he and his political allies can attack the Court. It’s a dangerous game that shows precisely why Americans’ trust in institutions is at its nadir. But at least the justices beat back this blatant abuse.”

Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and author of Canceling Justice: The Illiberal Takeover of Legal Education (forthcoming 2024).

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