SCOTUS Strikes Down Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Plan

[Webster]

(The Guardian) Court turns down first challenge to Biden student loan relief plan
The supreme court unanimously turned down one of two challenges to Joe Biden’s student loan relief plan, saying the respondents had no standing.

We are waiting for the court’s opinion in the second challenge to the program.

Supreme court conservatives strike down Biden's student debt relief program
In their second opinion, the supreme court’s conservative majority struck down Joe Biden’s program to relieve some federal student loan debt.

The three liberal justices dissented.

Supreme court chief justice John Roberts, a conservative, authored the majority opinion striking down Joe Biden’s attempt to relieve some student loan debt. He concluded: Last year, the Secretary of Education established the first comprehensive student loan forgiveness program, invoking the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (HEROES Act) for authority to do so. The Secretary’s plan canceled roughly $430 billion of federal student loan balances, completely erasing the debts of 20 million borrowers and lowering the median amount owed by the other 23 million from $29,400 to $13,600 … Six States sued, arguing that the HEROES Act does not authorize the loan cancellation plan. We agree.

“In every respect, the Court today exceeds its proper, limited role in our Nation’s governance.”

Thus begins justice Elena Kagan’s dissent against the conservative majority’s decision stopping Joe Biden from relieving some federal student loan debt. She was joined by her two fellow liberals on the court.

It’s a long read with lots in it, but here’s a good encapsulation of Kagan’s counterargument: The Court reads statutes unnaturally, seeking to cabin their evident scope. And the Court applies heightened-specificity requirements, thwarting Congress’s efforts to ensure adequate responses to unforeseen events. The result here is that the Court substitutes itself for Congress and the Executive Branch in making national policy about student-loan forgiveness. Congress authorized the forgiveness plan (among many other actions); the Secretary put it in place; and the President would have been accountable for its success or failure. But this Court today decides that some 40 million Americans will not receive the benefits the plan provides, because (so says the Court) that assistance is too “significan[t].”

 

[Webster]

(The Guardian) Republicans cheer court ruling against Biden debt relief plan
GOP party leaders and presidential candidates are pleased as punch that the supreme court’s conservatives have stopped Joe Biden from relieving some federal student loan debt.

Here’s House speaker Kevin McCarthy:


Or former vice-president and current presidential candidate Mike Pence, who said: Joe Biden’s massive trillion-dollar student loan bailout subsidizes the education of elites on the backs of hardworking Americans, and it was an egregious violation of the Constitution for him to attempt to do so unilaterally with the stroke of the executive pen. I am pleased that the Court struck down the Radical Left’s effort to use the money of taxpayers who played by the rules and repaid their debts in order to cancel the debt of bankers and lawyers in New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. 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.

And Nikki Haley, once Donald Trump’s United Nations ambassador, now a competitor for the GOP’s presidential nomination: A president cannot just wave his hand and eliminate loans for students he favors, while leaving out all those who worked hard to pay back their loans or made other career choices. The Supreme Court was right to throw out Joe Biden’s power grab.

 

[Webster]

(The Guardian) Ruling against debt relief 'cruel', Senate's Democratic leader says, vowing, 'fight will not end here'
The Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is out with a statement both condemning the supreme court’s ruling against Joe Biden’s student debt relief program and claiming that the court’s conservative justices are, essentially, in Donald Trump’s pocket: This disappointing and cruel ruling shows the callousness of the Maga Republican-controlled supreme court. The hypocrisy is clear: as justices accept lavish, six-figure gifts, they don’t dare to help Americans saddled with student loan debt, instead siding with the powerful, big-monied interests.

The fight will not end here. The Biden administration has remaining legal routes to provide broad-based student debt cancellation. With the pause on student loan payments set to expire in weeks, I call upon the administration to do everything in its power to deliver for millions of working- and middle-class Americans struggling with student loan debt.

 

[Black Angel]

Wasn't ACB a supporter of this.. I mean she ruled in favor for it in the lower courts.. supposedly this was something she supported..

Not surprised by this at all.. debt slavery is highly lucrative, as is the others.. and that is exactly what this ruling will make worse..

We can also thank Ginsburg for this. She should have retired when Obama asked her to.