New York’s Democratic Socialist Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) vented her frustration last week on social media after the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) struck down President Joe Biden’s student loan debt cancellation plan. She directly called out Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, noting his ties to a billionaire.
“Justice Alito accepted tens of thousands of dollars in lavish vacation gifts from a billionaire who lobbied to cancel the student loan forgiveness. After the gifts, Alito voted to overturn. This SCOTUS’ corruption undercuts its own legitimacy by putting its rulings up for sale,” Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) tweeted on Friday.
That post on Twitter had more than 8.4 million views as of Monday morning and it had received nearly 170,000 likes. It was also retweeted more than 40,000 times. Clearly, the New York City firebrand struck a nerve with some on the social media platform.
The SCOTUS Ruling
By a vote of 6-3, the justices ruled that the Biden administration had overstepped its authority last year when it announced that it would cancel up to $400 billion in student loans.
The White House had claimed that as many as 43 million Americans would have benefitted from the loan forgiveness program, and almost half of those borrowers would have had all of their student loans forgiven. Biden had pledged to permanently cancel up to $20,000 in loans for borrowers who qualify during his 2020 run for president.
However, last year, federal courts in Missouri and Texas put the program on hold, and the Biden administration brought the case to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to weigh in.
President Biden has since vowed to pursue a new path to debt relief, which has already been initiated at the Department of Education – however, the president has acknowledged, “it’s going to take longer.”
Justice Alito And the Case of a Fishing Trip
As noted, the vote to strike down Biden’s student loan forgiveness program was 6-3, yet Justice Alito was directly in the New York Congresswoman’s crosshairs.
She noted that the justice was recently tied to billionaire and GOP megadonor Paul Singer for reportedly accepting a luxury fishing trip and failing to disclose it as a gift on his 2008 financial filings. At issue to some, including Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, is that Singer serves as the chairman of the Manhattan Institute, which filed an amicus brief alongside the Cato Institute supporting the challengers in both student loan cases.
Last month, ProPublica published a story about Alito’s trip with Singer.
“Singer was more than a fellow angler. He flew Alito to Alaska on a private jet. If the justice chartered the plane himself, the cost could have exceeded $100,000 one way,” the report stated.
The same news outlet had previously reported on Justice Clarence Thomas for also failing to disclose financial filings for luxury gifts and trips from billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow.
Alito Responded
In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Alito argued that until a few months ago, Supreme Court justices were told that personal hospitality does not have to be reported.
Moreover, while the ProPublica report had noted Singer’s hedge fund, NML Capital, had come before the highest court in the land on multiple occasions, Alito maintained that he had “no obligation to recuse,” as Singer was not listed as a party in the cases.
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
