Supreme Court Strikes Down Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan

In a significant decision today, the Supreme Court invalidated President Biden’s controversial initiative to forgive student loan debt for approximately 40 million borrowers, stating that it exceeded his executive authority.

On the final day before the court’s summer recess, the six conservative justices concluded that the $400 billion plan could not rely on a previous 2003 law, originally intended to assist veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as a basis for its implementation.

However, the three liberal justices dissented from the ruling, expressing their disagreement.

President Biden had announced his student loan forgiveness program in August of last year, aiming to eliminate up to $20,000 in student loan debt for specific borrowers. Nevertheless, the program faced strong opposition from numerous Republican lawmakers who questioned its legality.

Attorneys general from six states with GOP leadership, along with two borrowers who did not qualify for the program’s full benefits, filed legal challenges against the Biden administration. These states argued that Biden lacked the authority to cancel the substantial student debt and instead needed to seek legislation from Congress specifically tied to loan forgiveness.

The White House contended that it possessed the unilateral power to implement the program under the decades-old Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act (HEROES Act). They argued that student loan cancellation constituted the distribution of an existing benefit rather than the creation of new legislation.

Initially passed in 2003 to provide financial assistance to US service members deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq, the HEROES Act was later expanded to grant the Department of Education the ability to modify terms for other federal student loans during national emergencies.

Despite the national emergency related to COVID-19 officially ending on May 11 under the direction of President Biden, the White House maintained in its February argument to the Supreme Court that the economic repercussions of the pandemic would persist, thus justifying the necessity for loan forgiveness.

Under Biden’s plan, the federal government would have forgiven up to $10,000 in federal student debt for individuals earning less than $125,000 annually, with an additional $20,000 forgiveness for Pell Grant recipients from lower-income families.

During his presidential campaign in 2020, Biden had pledged to cancel student debt.

The Supreme Court’s ruling on student loan forgiveness follows a separate decision the day prior, in which the court voted 6-3 to prohibit colleges and universities from considering an applicant’s race in admissions determinations.

{Matzav.com}