Opinion: What college really costs

Also: An echo of Obamacare in the Supreme Court ruling in the Masterpiece case. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Tuesday, June 5, 2018 [NYTimes.com/Opinion »]( [David Leonhardt] David Leonhardt Op-Ed Columnist First, if you’ve ever been curious to find out how much elite private colleges really cost, check out [a data-visualization that we just published this morning](. The answer for the vast majority of Americans is: A lot less than those scary sticker prices that approach $75,000 a year. My colleagues and I analyzed the data from an online calculator that publishes the real cost of attending 32 selective schools, including Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Yale, Boston College and the University of Virginia. Our article reports those costs for poor, middle-class and rich families. Wedding cakes, Obamacare and the Muslim ban. The breakdown of yesterday’s 7-2 Supreme Court vote — in the matter of a cake baker versus a gay couple — had a familiar ring to it. The majority was a combination of the five Republican-appointed justices and Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, both Democratic appointees. It was the same breakdown (with Neil Gorsuch replacing Antonin Scalia among the conservatives) that in 2012 had voted to make a major portion of Obamacare — the Medicaid expansion — voluntary for states rather than mandatory. Some Court watchers saw undertones of [a political compromise]( in that earlier 7-2 vote. They believed that Breyer, Kagan and Chief Justice John Roberts had agreed, explicitly or otherwise, on a middle ground. Breyer and Kagan provided bipartisan cover for a significant rollback of Obamacare. In a separate part of the case, Roberts joined the four liberal justices to cast the crucial conservative vote that allowed the rest of the law to be upheld, 5-4. If you believe that the justices sometimes practice the ancient arts of negotiation and compromise — and I do — then what could be the larger message of yesterday’s ruling? As in the Obamacare case, Breyer and Kagan yesterday signed onto a conservative decision, which sided ([on narrow legal grounds]( with the owner of a Lakewood, Colo., bakery called Masterpiece Cakeshop. The owner, Jack Phillips, argued that he had the right on religious grounds to refuse to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. Specifically, the court found that a Colorado commission that had earlier ruled against the store owner was prejudiced against him. The commission, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the 7-2 decision, displayed “a clear and impermissible hostility toward the sincere religious beliefs that motivated his objection.” In that rationale, several legal experts saw trouble for President Trump’s Muslim ban. If the court “is serious about the reasoning and principles it articulated in Masterpiece Cakeshop, and it should be, then it should reject several of the arguments that have been used to defend the entry ban,” [wrote]( Leah Litman on the Take Care blog. She added: “Masterpiece Cakeshop reiterated a point basic to our constitutional system — the government cannot act on the basis of animus or hostility toward a particular religion. To effectuate that principle, courts look to circumstantial evidence, including officials’ words, to determine whether the government acted with animus.” No one outside the court can know whether it will indeed reject the Muslim ban, as Litman notes. But if it does, and the vote is 5-4, with one conservative justice (most likely Kennedy) joining the liberals, the historical parallel will be hard to ignore. In The Times, [Robert George]( says the behavior of the Colorado commissioners made the case an easy call for the court, while [Jennifer Finney Boylan]( calls for a Constitutional amendment to protect L.G.B.T.Q. rights. Primary season continues. Today is the year’s biggest day of primaries, with races in Montana, New Jersey, California and elsewhere. California’s races are the most significant, because the state’s open-primary system moves the top two finishers — regardless of party — onto the general election. The big question is whether a large field of Democrats in any swing district will split the vote and allow Republicans to finish one-two. That outcome would guarantee a Republican win in November and hurt Democrats’ chances of retaking the House. [Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report]( has a preview, and [Clare Malone of FiveThirtyEight]( explains why California is so much more liberal than Texas. The full Opinion report from The Times follows. On the Masterpiece Decision Contributing Op-Ed Writer [After Masterpiece, It’s Time to Change the Constitution]( By JENNIFER FINNEY BOYLAN We can’t keep litigating the equality of gay and lesbian Americans. We need an equal-rights amendment. [Colorado Made the Masterpiece Case Easy for the Court]( By ROBERT P. GEORGE The justices ruled against the obvious anti-Christian animus exhibited toward a baker who opposes same-sex marriage. [The Masterpiece Decision Isn’t Harmless]( By SILAS HOUSE In red states like Kentucky, it is likely to embolden anti-gay legislation. From Our Columnists Op-Ed Columnist [Top Colleges Are Cheaper Than You Think (Unless You’re Rich)]( By DAVID LEONHARDT The list price at many private colleges has reached a bewildering sum of $70,000 a year. But the real price is often vastly lower. Op-Ed Columnist [Intellectuals, Politics and Bad Faith]( By PAUL KRUGMAN Don’t let the right-wingers grind you down. Op-Ed Columnist [Does the Law Apply to Donald Trump?]( By MICHELLE GOLDBERG His lawyers say no and Republicans don’t care. Op-Ed Columnist [How to Repair the National Marriage]( By DAVID BROOKS Some therapeutic wisdom about how to heal our politics. The Conversation [Pardon Me!]( By GAIL COLLINS AND BRET STEPHENS President Trump and his many powers. [Trump Wants to Pardon Himself for Blowing the Midterms]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD The president once again predicts a rigged election. We all know what that means. LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. ADVERTISEMENT More in Opinion [End the Blockade of Qatar]( By MOHAMMED BIN ABDULRAHMAN AL-THANI It has been a year and my country is thriving. Now it’s time for the rest of the region to move on. [Are You Sure You Want a Right to Trump’s Twitter Account?]( By NOAH FELDMAN Applying the First Amendment to social media companies will make it harder for them to limit fake news and harassment. [Why Can’t Native Americans Make Whiskey?]( By C. JARRETT DIETERLE AND KEVIN R. KOSAR Outdated, paternalistic laws prevent tribes from taking part in the craft-spirits boom. [Bailing Out the Coal Industry Will Hurt Consumers]( By JEFF NESBIT President Trump wants to subsidize money-losing coal and nuclear plants under the fiction that they are essential to national security. Fixes [A Growing Drive to Get Homelessness to Zero]( By DAVID BORNSTEIN A new standard for housing the homeless — “functional zero” — has been achieved in nine American communities and is a target in dozens of others. HOW ARE WE DOING? We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [leonhardt@nytimes.com](mailto:leonhardt@nytimes.com?subject=Opinion%20Today%20Newsletter%20Feedback). ADVERTISEMENT Letters [The Wedding Cake Ruling: Gay Rights and Religion]( Readers discuss the Supreme Court decision backing a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake for a gay couple. 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