On Thursday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments on whether the Biden administration overstepped its authority in declaring hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt magically forgiven. Given that every other appeals court has already ruled the Biden program illegal, it’s a good bet that the president’s election-year gambit to wring votes from college-age kids has almost come to an end.
The court also kept the program’s implementation on pause, meaning that the Department of Education can’t process any applications until at least next year. Arguments in the case will be heard in February, with a decision handed down sometime in June.
At this point, with student loan payments on hold since April 2020, it may come down to a question of the court bowing to reality. According to a Morning Consult survey, 59% of borrowers will be unable to resume their loan payments when the moratorium is lifted next June. That might give the justices pause in ending the debt cancellation program entirely.
Six conservative states – Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina – told the Supreme Court that Biden overstepped his legal authority with the program and violated the constitutional principle of separation of powers by embarking on a loan forgiveness program estimated to affect 40 million Americans.
Biden enacted the debt relief plan under the HEROES Act, which was passed after 9/11 sparked an American-led military campaign against terrorism. The act gives the president authority to forgive student loan debt in association with military operations or national emergencies, the administration has argued.
The Department of Education has asserted the law allows loan forgiveness for Americans dealing with financial hardship because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden’s problems are twofold. First, there is no national emergency due to the pandemic. Maintaining that fiction will be difficult. Secondly, using the HEROES Act to justify the loan forgiveness program has always been a legal stretch that each appeals court decision has mentioned as being a bridge too far to forgive that much student debt.
The latest legal setback for the Biden administration was in the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which refused to delay a Texas judge’s ruling that said Biden’s plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt was against the law.
A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit in Wednesday’s brief order declined to put Pittman’s ruling on hold while the administration appealed his decision, but the court directed that the appeal be heard on an expedited basis.
The panel included two Republican appointees and one judge nominated by then Democratic President Barack Obama. Pittman was appointed by then Republican President Donald Trump.
Now it’s in the hands of SCOTUS, and no one will be surprised if the conservative court rules against the administration and buries the student loan forgiveness plan for good.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member