Supreme Court Closes Summer Term with More Workplace-Changing Decisions

The Supreme Court closed out its summer term with a flurry of decisions that figure to have a significant impact on the workplace going forward.

As PSHRA reported, June 29 saw the court effectively put an end to the consideration of race in college admissions, which experts cautioned could open the door to future litigation targeting diversity practices in other fields.

The same day, the highest court in the land delivered a win to employees seeking religious accommodations on the job, making clear that “workers who ask for accommodations, such as taking the Sabbath off, should get them unless their employers show doing so would result in ‘substantial increased costs’ to the business,” AP News’ Jessica Gresko wrote.

Less than 24 hours later, the court issued two more rulings with serious implications for the working world.

In a decision that means “a long-delayed proposal intended to implement a campaign trail promise will not go into effect,” the court invalidated President Biden’s student loan debt relief program.

The plan, which would have permitted eligible borrowers to cancel up to $20,000 in debt and would have cost more than $400 billion, had been blocked since an appeals court issued a temporary hold in October, NBC News’ Lawrence Hurley reported.

Finally, the Supreme Court handed down a defeat for gay rights in ruling that a Christian graphic artist can refuse to work on wedding websites for same-sex marriages.

In ruling 6-3 for Colorado-based web designer Lorie Smith, the court determined that she can refuse to design websites for same-sex weddings despite a Colorado state law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation, race, gender and other characteristics, as Gresko reported.

The court ruled that forcing Smith to create websites for same-sex couples would violate her free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment, in a decision that “suggests that artists, photographers, videographers and writers are among those who can refuse to offer what the court called expressive services if doing so would run contrary to their beliefs,” Gresko wrote. “But that’s different from other businesses not engaged in speech and therefore not covered by the First Amendment, such as restaurants and hotels.”

Assessing the Potential Impact

Hueing to ideological lines, the justices overturned a lower court’s decision in the Smith ruling, citing her religious beliefs against gay marriage in challenging the aforementioned Colorado law. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the ruling that “Colorado’s law would force Smith to create speech that she does not believe, in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment,” according to Reuters.

“The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands,” Gorsuch wrote.

In their dissent, however, the court’s liberal justices called the decision “a license to discriminate,” with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing that the ruling “grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class.”

The June 30 ruling that put the brakes on the Biden administration’s student loan debt relief plan figures to have far-reaching workplace implications as well. Many employers provide some form of student loan debt assistance. One 2022 survey, for instance, found 72% of organizations saying they offer or plan to offer student loan debt assistance or tuition reimbursement.

Had it ultimately gone into effect, the Biden program would have relieved roughly 43 million Americans of at least part of their student loan debt, with around 20 million seeing their debt erased completely, as AP News reported.

Now, barring an act of Congress, these borrowers will be responsible for resuming student loan payments in October, when a three-year freeze instituted at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic is lifted.

“Still, borrowers who are worried about their budgets do have options,” AP News reported, noting that other government-run loan forgiveness programs are still in effect, while the Biden administration has already announced a new student loan debt relief plan.

And, along with the reimbursement programs employers are already offering, agencies can also develop student loan contribution plans, which are akin to retirement contributions and “allow employees to dedicate a percentage of their paycheck toward student loan repayment with a match from their employer,” as Barrett Scruggs, vice president of workplace financial well-being at SoFi at Work, recently told CNBC, adding that these types of programs also enable workers to automate the decision to put money aside for student loan payments.

Of course, sharing information and resources with employees—loan payoff calculators debt counseling, webinars, for instance—is “one of the simplest and most affordable ways employers can help employees” manage student loan debt, Scruggs said, adding that directing workers to sites such as www.studentaid.gov help employees stay current on the status of loan forgiveness programs and other relevant developments.

“There are many ways to help employees manage and pay down student loan debt. The first is through financial education resources and empowering employees with knowledge,” Scruggs told CNBC.

“This is one of the most cost-friendly ways for an organization to help and includes sharing financial education resources, updates and guidance on student loan policy, budgeting tools like a student loan calculator and access to financial planners.”