Supreme Court rulings on religious freedom, affirmative action, student loans

The U.S. Supreme Court issued significant decisions in the final days of June. Below is a summary of four issues the high court debated.

Affirmative action

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 29 that institutions of higher education can no longer take race into consideration for admission, a landmark decision overturning previous precedent supported by many Catholic universities and colleges. As it has been used in higher education, affirmative action includes admissions practices that purport to increase the number of students admitted from historically marginalized groups, such as Black and Hispanic students. Colleges and universities that take race into consideration have argued that doing so is only one factor in a broader admissions process, which also includes a student’s grades, test scores and extracurricular activities. Supporters of affirmative action policies argue that it is one method of helping to address the lasting impact of racism in American society. Opponents say race-based admission policies harm students who should be judged on their merits as students alone, with some arguing that Asian American students were disproportionality rejected in favor of white, Black and Hispanic applicants. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the 6-3 majority opinion, arguing admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause. The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, which describes itself as the collective voice of U.S. Catholic higher education, said in a statement the high court’s ruling is “more than disappointing as it ignores the morethan-apparent effects of continued racism in our society.” It said the association’s members would “continue to create paths by which those in society who do not have opportunity find it at our institutions.”

Religious accommodations

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision June 29 in favor of a former postal worker who said he was denied a religious accommodation

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to observe Christian precepts on keeping holy the Lord’s Day by his former employer. The case Groff v. DeJoy concerned Gerald Groff, an evangelical Christian and former U.S. Postal Service worker, who was denied an accommodation to observe his Sunday Sabbath by not taking Sunday shifts resulting in the loss of his job. The Supreme Court found that federal law requires workplaces to make appropriate accommodations for their employees’ religious practices unless those practices cannot be “reasonably” accommodated without “undue hardship.” The court’s 1977 precedent in Trans World Airlines v. Hardison found that the “undue hardship” standard is met even at a minimal cost. But in Groff v. DeJoy, the court threw out that standard and ruled that an employer denying religious accommodations must show the burden of granting an accommodation would result in substantial increased costs. “Faced with an accommodation request like Groff’s, an employer must do more than conclude that forcing other employees to work overtime would constitute an undue hardship.

uCatholic leaders call for prayer, action after wave of July 4 holiday shootings across US. Catholic leaders throughout the U.S. are calling for prayer and action after gun violence scarred the long July 4 holiday weekend in 18 states plus the nation’s capital. The rampages between June 30 and July 5 left 25 dead and 145 injured. Mass shootings were reported in Washington, D.C., California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas. “The U.S. bishops join with others throughout the country in offering prayers for the support and healing of the communities impacted by these violent shootings,” Chieko Noguchi, spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told OSV News. The Church’s witness to life amid the shootings is more crucial than ever, Father Eric Banecker, pastor of St. Francis de Sales Parish in Philadelphia, told OSV News.

Consideration of other options would also be necessary,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his majority opinion. The Supreme Court’s ruling sends Groff’s case back to the lower court for reconsideration.

Student loans

The U.S. Supreme Court June 30 rejected President Joe Biden’s $400 billion plan to cancel or significantly reduce federal student loan debts for millions of Americans. The Biden administration’s student debt forgiveness program would have canceled $10,000 in such debts for individuals making less than $125,000 or households making less than $250,000. Pell Grant recipients would have been granted an additional $10,000 in debt forgiveness. The Biden administration had argued the plan was lawful under a 2003 law called the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, or HEROES Act, which permits the government to provide some relief to recipients of student loans in a “national emergency,” to ensure borrowers are not left in financial difficulty as a result of such an emergency. But Chief Justice uVatican offers indulgence for visiting elderly, celebrating grandparents day. Catholics who celebrate the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly July 23 can receive a plenary indulgence, which is a remission of the temporal punishment due for one’s sins, the Vatican said. In a decree issued July 5, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, said that a plenary indulgence will be extended “to grandparents, the elderly and all the faithful who, motivated by

The Philadelphia shooting in his parish boundaries took five lives, and the priest told parishioners in an email to engage in prayer and penance because “we have a unique responsibility to respond spiritually to this terrible event.” Following the shooting in his city, Baltimore Archbishop William Lori issued a July 2 message imploring both prayer and action. “Consider how all of us can support neighborhood and community efforts that work to end violence in our streets,” he said.

John Roberts, writing for a 6-3 majority, rejected that argument, stating that the court’s precedent “requires that Congress speak clearly before a department secretary can unilaterally alter large sections of the American economy,” and arguing the Biden administration overstepped its authority. After a more than three-year, COVID-era pause, borrowers will have to resume payments on their federal student loan bills this fall.

303 Creative LLC v. Elenis

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 30 in favor of a Christian web designer who argued she had a First Amendment right to refuse to provide services for same-sex marriages despite a Colorado law prohibiting discrimination against people who identify as LGBTQ+. In a 6-3 decision split down the court’s ideological lines, justices found the First Amendment protects Lorie Smith, a website designer who said her Christian faith requires her to decline customers seeking wedding-related services for same-sex unions. The court ruled that for Colorado to force her to do so, against her religious convictions, would be unconstitutional compelled speech. “Colorado seeks to force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a majority opinion for 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. In a dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor countered, “Today, the Court, for the first time in its history, grants a business open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to serve members of a protected class.” Kristen Waggoner, president, CEO and general counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, the public interest firm which represented Smith, said in a statement the Supreme Court “rightly reaffirmed that the government can’t force Americans to say things they don’t believe.” She added, “The ruling makes clear that nondiscrimination laws remain firmly in place, and that the government has never needed to compel speech to ensure access to goods and services.” The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ religious liberty committee praised the ruling, saying, the government cannot “force us to support, by our words or actions, behavior that we believe is wrong.” the true spirit of penitence and charity,” attend Mass or other services to celebrate the world day and that the indulgence can “also be applied as suffrage for the souls in purgatory.” The decree states that the indulgence will also apply to “the faithful who dedicate adequate time to visit in person or virtually, through means of communication, elderly brothers and sisters in need or in difficulty” such as the sick, abandoned and disabled on July 23. To receive a plenary indulgence, a person must show detachment from sin, go to confession, receive the Eucharist and pray for the intentions of the pope. uRussia launches ‘barbaric attack’ on civilians near Ukrainian Catholic University. A Catholic university community in western Ukraine is reeling from a July 6 missile attack on the city of Lviv,

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CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE located less than 50 miles from the Polish border. Russian military launched 10 Kalibr missiles at the Lviv region from the Black Sea overnight, with Ukraine’s air force stating it had intercepted seven. The remainder slammed into more than 300 homes and apartments, killing at least five and injuring some 37. Emergency workers are continuing to retrieve victims from the rubble, with the specific number of casualties yet to be determined.

The missiles struck within some 600 feet of Ukrainian Catholic University, which sustained minor damage to four of its campus buildings. No one on campus was injured, the school said in a statement. UCU president Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, who had just presided at the school’s commencement activities last week, said in a statement to OSV News that “the attack of innocent civilians by Russia is unconscionable” and “barbaric.” The university provided shelter in its campus church, St. Sophia, while staff and students assisted the injured and helped clear the debris. The university is also “preparing lodging for those who have been forced from their homes, who have lost everything,” said Archbishop Gudziak. “I can say that Ukrainians are holding strong. But the danger is daily and real, the trauma is deep, and it behooves the entire free world to respond in support of the brave defenders of freedom and justice.” uNewly named ‘venerable,’ Sister Lucia spread Fatima message throughout her long life. Venerable Lucia was only 10 years old when she and her two younger cousins told their friends and family that they had seen the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima in 1917. Mary first appeared to Lucia, 9-year-old Francisco Marto and 7-year-old Jacinta Marto May 13, and the apparitions continued once a month until October 1917. The Catholic Church has ruled that the apparitions and the messages from Our Lady of Fatima were worthy of belief. On June 22, Pope Francis declared Sister Lucia “venerable,” with a decree recognizing the Fatima visionary’s heroic virtues. Pope Benedict XVI waived the standard waiting period for Sister Lucia’s cause, opening it in 2008. The Diocese of Coimbra, Portugal, completed its investigation and forwarded documentation to the Holy See’s Congregation (since renamed Dicastery) for the Causes of Saints in 2017, the apparitions’ centennial year. Three months later, Pope Benedict XVI canonized Francisco and Jacinta. uNew parish named for Knights of Columbus founder in town he first served. A priest on the road to sainthood, who has united millions of Catholic men across the world, is drawing faithful together in the town where he first served. The Archdiocese of Hartford announced it will merge seven parishes in New Haven, Connecticut, into the newly created Blessed Michael McGivney Parish, named for the Waterbury, Connecticut, native who founded the Knights of Columbus fraternal order, which counts some 2 million members globally. Effective July 1, the parishes of Sts. Aedan and Brendan, St. Anthony, St. Martin de Porres, St. Mary, St. Michael, Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Stanislaus “united as one parish under the patronage of Blessed Michael McGivney,” said Hartford Archbishop Leonard Blair in a July 3 joint statement with the Knights of Columbus and Catholic leaders from the New Haven area. Father Ryan Lerner, pastor of St. Mary — the oldest Catholic parish in New Haven, and site of Father McGivney’s tomb — will serve as the new parish’s moderator. “I feel profoundly moved and so very excited that our unified parish will be named for and entrusted to the patronal care of Blessed Michael McGivney,” said Father Lerner. Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly said the Knights of Columbus were “honored that the new city-wide parish has adopted Blessed Michael McGivney’s name,” pointing to the priest’s pastoral dedication “amid a society that frowned upon Catholic immigrants.”

Archbishop Blair described Father McGivney as “an exemplar of charity and steadfast devotion to Christ” who is “still today inspiring millions of people to action for the common good, in the name of God.” uU.S. bishops praise expansion of family reunification processes for migrants. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said July 7 that it would implement new processes for eligible nationals of Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The expanded program, which began July 10 and was praised by the bishops on the same day, permits migrants from those countries to travel to the U.S. and gain work permits if they have family members who are U.S. citizens or legal residents, and those relatives filed visa applications on their behalf. Parole would be determined on a case-by-case basis, officials said. In a statement, Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, said the bishops “welcome this effort to provide a realistic opportunity for attaining family unity and reunification, which are foundational to the U.S. immigration system and central tenets of Catholic social teaching.” u’Right to life’ at stake: Catholics react to high court’s ruling on Navajo water rights. After a 5-4 Supreme Court decision struck a blow to the Navajo Nation’s request for federal assistance in securing water for the reservation June 22, Catholics who minister among Native Americans shared their thoughts on the historic water crisis facing the Southwest U.S. and the Indigenous populations who live there. “People line up at a community well and fill up their water containers to take out to their homesteads to be able to have water for their families for the week, sometimes for days. If it’s an older couple, it might last a little longer,” said Dot Teso, president of St. Michael Indian School in St. Michaels, Arizona — which was founded by St. Katharine Drexel in 1902. Arizona v. Navajo Nation came before the Supreme Court when the Navajo Nation asked for the courts to require the federal government to identify the Indigenous nation’s water rights and needs and provide a way to meet those needs. Seeking to protect their own interest in access to the Colorado River, the states of Arizona, Colorado and Nevada intervened in the lawsuit. The Navajo Nation argued that the

1868 Treaty of Bosque Redondo establishing the Navajos’ reservation requires the federal government to secure water for the tribal nation, making a “breach-of-trust” claim. But Justice Brett Kavanaugh in writing for the majority stated the treaty “does not impose a duty ... to take affirmative steps to secure water for the tribe,” adding that there were other explicit impositions on the government in the treaty. The day after the Supreme Court’s ruling, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs appointed four tribal representatives to serve on the Governor’s Water Policy Council, which develops policy recommendations focusing on assured water supply and rural groundwater policies. Among the new appointees are the governor of the Gila River Indian Community and the legal counsel to the president of the Navajo Nation. “Our leaders long ago fought for our right to our precious homeland between our Sacred Mountains and that included the water right, the right to life,” said Navajo Nation Speaker Crystalyne Curley in a statement. “Today’s ruling will not deter the Navajo Nation from securing the water that our ancestors sacrificed and fought for.”

— OSV News

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