We're closing our live coverage of this final Supreme Court decision day before the summer recess, and we'll no doubt be back with you for more legal wrangling in October.

Here's a quick summary of today's decisions:

• The court struck down President Joe Biden's plan to forgive student debt for over 40 million Americans

• It ruled 6-3 in favour of the six states challenging the plans, split along conservative and liberal lines
• Speaking for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said he used the "major questions doctrine" to argue Congress had not explicitly approved a plan of major significance
• Dissenting Justice Elena Kagan criticised the majority for overreach and suggested the Supreme Court was usurping the role of Congress and the presidency
• In its first ruling of the day, the court voted in favour of a Colorado designer who was objecting to a law obliging her to design a website for a same-sex wedding
• The court argued that the First Amendment, which protects free speech, blocks the state from forcing Lorie Smith to create designs endorsing messages with which she disagrees
• This decision also fell along the same 6-3 ideological lines

Today's live page was brought to you by Marianna Brady, Brandon Livesay, Madeline Halpert, Kayla Epstein and Adam Durbin. Thanks for joining us.

You can read more of our coverage here.

Kayla Epstein
US reporter

The justices might be hanging up their robes for the summer, but it's not too early to look at some of the significant cases on the docket for the next term.

The Supreme Court will consider a gun case, where they will weigh whether the government has the power to prevent individuals subject to domestic violence orders from having guns.

Gun safety advocates have long supported such laws, but they are up against the Second Amendment which protects the right for Americans to own firearms.

Last year, the court expanded the right for individuals to carry guns in public.

But first, the justices will enjoy a summer holiday.

Image source, Reuters

The Supreme Court has ruled on several major cases this term, with many of the decisions coming in just the past week. Before we close our live coverage today, let's look back at some of them.

• Today's ruling strikes down President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan
• Thursday's decision overturns decades-old university affirmative action policies on race in college admissions
• A ruling rejects a legal theory that would have drastically increased the power of state lawmakers to decide election laws
• A ruling against the Navajo Nation in a water rights case rejected the tribe’s challenge against the US government in a fight over access to the Colorado River

Image source, Getty Images

A handful of other Republican politicians have shared their praise of today's Supreme Court ruling.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise called the decision a "win for taxpayers".

"It’s insane that the Left thinks hardworking families who never took loans or paid them back should have to pay for degrees of the elites," he tweeted, external.

Republican presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence echoed his statement, claiming the student loan plan was an "egregious violation of the Constitution".

"I am honored to have played a role in appointing three of the Justices that ensured today’s welcomed decision, and as President I will continue to appoint judges who will strictly apply the law and enforce our Constitution’s separation of powers," he said.

Image source, Reuters

The most senior Republican in the Senate has reacted to the Supreme Court's ruling on student loan forgiveness, describing it as a "heavy blow to Democrats’ distorted and outsized view of executive power".

In a statement, Mitch McConnell says the American people already knew President Joe Biden's "student loan socialism plan would be a raw deal for hardworking taxpayers".

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has reacted to the ruling by arguing it does not remove President Joe Biden's ability to purse student loan forgiveness.

Writing on Twitter, the Democratic congresswoman says the Biden administration can use the Higher Education Act to "continue loan forgiveness before payments resume".

Ocasio-Cortez says using this act was the preference of fellow Democrats from the left of the party, adding Biden "should do so ASAP".

Image source, Reuters

The president plans to speak about the Supreme Court decision today, the White House has told reporters.

It added the Biden administration strongly disagreed with the decision but was "prepared for this scenario".

"The President will make clear he’s not done fighting yet, and will announce next steps to protect student loan borrowers," the White House told reporters.

Image source, Getty Images

The NAACP has announced that it will march with a group of students and activists from the steps of the Supreme Court to the White House in protest of today's student loan forgiveness ruling.

In a statement, the group called the decision a "clear disregard for what millions of Americans need - especially Black Americans".

"Education has long been regarded as a path toward generational wealth, economic liberation, and securing the American dream. Let's be clear - student debt is killing that dream," the group said.

The White House released a statement from President Biden in the wedding website decision, where the majority ruled in favour of a designer who did not want to create wedding websites for LGBT couples.

Biden called it a "disappointing decision."

He continued:

"Today’s decision weakens long-standing laws that protect all Americans against discrimination in public accommodations – including people of color, people with disabilities, people of faith, and women."

He said he would take action to ensure people's rights are not rolled back in the wake of the decision.

Kayla Epstein
US reporter

The court's decision in favour of the website designer who did not want to provide services to LGBT couples could have far reaching effects beyond the wedding industry, Katherine Franke, director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia University, told the BBC.

“What we see is the court continuing a trend in their earlier cases under the First Amendment, of tiering constitutional rights: elevating First Amendment rights of Evangelical Christians over equality rights of the LGBT community," she said.

After reading the ruling, Franke believes the court has opened the door for people to refuse services to gay couples, or individuals, in other aspects of society.

“This is an extremely broad opinion that provides us with no limits on its reach," Franke said.

"In the employment context, in the housing context, really in almost any context."

The Supreme Court has struck down his plan to relieve some student debt for millions of American. Here's where Biden might go next to make it happen.

Image source, Getty Images

Groups that had advocated for student loan relief are reacting to the ruling, arguing the Supreme Court has "rip[ped] away critical relief from 40 million borrowers and their families".

“Today, a majority of this corrupt court brushed aside the rule of law to advance its ideological crusade against working people," said Student Borrower Protection Center deputy executive director Persis Yu.

Melissa Byrne, a student loan activist, called on the Biden administration to "immediately implement a plan B" in the wake of the decision.

“President Biden must cancel student debt before student loan repayment begins. Failure to deliver student loan relief is not an option," she said.

Image source, Getty Images

We're now hearing from politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer lambasted what he called the "MAGA Republican-controlled Supreme Court", calling the ruling "callous".

"The fight will not end here," he said. "The Biden administration has remaining legal routes to provide broad-based student debt cancellation."

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, meanwhile, lauded the decision.

"The 87% of Americans without student loans are no longer forced to pay for the 13% who do," he said.

Image source, Getty Images

Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the minority, criticises the court for "overreach" in deciding the case at all.

She argues that states should not be considered to have the right to sue over President Biden's debt forgiveness plan.

Kagan says the six states in question "have no personal stake" in the Secretary of Education's loan forgiveness decision.

"They are classic ideological plaintiffs: They think the plan a very bad idea, but they are no worse off because the Secretary differs," she writes.

Mohamed Madi
Reporting from the Supreme Court

Satra Taylor, a part-time student and campaigner for the group Young Invincibles, has high stakes in today’s Supreme Court decision.

She has more than $100,000 in personal student debt.

“Folks would expect me to feel to defeated, but I do not. We have our lawyer partners reviewing the opinion so we can be clear about what our steps are moving forward," Taylor tells me outside the Supreme Court.

“I know that student debt cancellation will happen because it is necessary, it is legal and it is just.

"Honestly, after the affirmative action decision I am not surprised. It is very clear that this is a different court, as President Biden has shared, so I am not surprised at all.”

Image source, Getty Images

Chief Justice John Roberts, speaking for the majority, says the Biden administration created a "novel" and "fundamentally different" loan forgiveness programme than the Heroes Act intended.

The "modifications" by the Department of Education, he adds, "expanded forgiveness to nearly every borrower in the country".

The forgiveness plan had relied on the 9/11-era law allowing the Secretary of Education to "waive or modify" student financial assistance programs as deemed "necessary in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency".

Roberts rejects the federal government's claim that the act also gives it the power to "waive" legal provisions, arguing the debt relief waiver "does not remotely resemble how it has been used on prior occasions".

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

In what is becoming a familiar divide, the six conservative Supreme Court justices combined to once again curtail the power of the federal government.

In this case, they struck down Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness programme, but the legal reasoning was similar to that in recent cases on the environment, vaccine mandates and a nationwide eviction moratorium.

It all boils down to what’s called the “major questions doctrine” – a conservative legal theory that holds that when it comes to issues of major political or economic significance, Congress has to explicitly approve the policy.

Presidents can’t use unusual or new interpretations of existing laws to enact major policy objectives through what the court views as a legal back door.

Chief Justice John Roberts, in striking down Biden’s loan forgiveness plan, held that there was no indication Congress envisioned current law being used for something so massive as forgiving more than $400m in student loan debt.

In other words, if the Biden administration wants to fulfil the president’s campaign promise on this issue, it’s going to have to get Congress to directly give the approval.

The White House estimated nearly 90% of the country's student borrowers would have qualified for relief under its plan, and about 26 million people have already applied for loan forgiveness.

The plan would have forgiven $10,000 (£7,800) in federal student loans - used to fund higher education costs such as tuition and housing - for each of the millions of Americans who earn less than $125,000 each year.

Biden would also forgive $20,000 of debt for students on Pell Grants, which applies to those with greatest financial need.

Image source, .

The Supreme Court has just issued a ruling striking down President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, siding with the state of Nebraska, which brought the challenge.

The ruling was 6-3, with the liberal justices once again dissenting.

The court argued that the Heroes Act, which the Biden administration had used to justify the student loan plan, does not authorise student loan forgiveness in this instance.

The Heroes Act was enacted after the 11 September attacks and allows for loan cancellation for people who have suffered economic hardship due to national emergencies.

You can read the full decision here, external.

President Joe Biden's student plan to forgive federal student loans has been voted down by the Supreme Court.

The court says the government does not have the ability to strike down $430 billion in debt, agreeing with the states that the Heroes Act does not authorize the forgiveness plan.

The justices ruled 6-3 in favour of Nebraska, the state challenging the plans.