A sharply divided Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Biden administration overstepped its authority in trying to cancel or reduce student loans for millions of Americans.
The 6-3 decision, with conservative justices in the majority, effectively killed the $400 billion plan, announced by President Joe Biden last year, and left borrowers on the hook for repayments that are expected to resume by late summer.
The court held that the administration needs Congress’ endorsement before undertaking so costly a program. The majority rejected arguments that a bipartisan 2003 law dealing with student loans, known as the HEROES Act, gave Biden the power he claimed.
“Six States sued, arguing that the HEROES Act does not authorize the loan cancellation plan. We agree,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a dissent, joined by the court’s two other liberals, that the majority of the court “overrides the combined judgment of the Legislative and Executive Branches, with the consequence of eliminating loan forgiveness for 43 million Americans.”
Loan repayments are expected to resume by late August under a schedule initially set by the administration and included in the agreement to raise the debt ceiling. Payments have been on hold since the start of the coronavirus pandemic more than three years ago.
The forgiveness program would have canceled $10,000 in student loan debt for those making less than $125,000 or households with less than $250,000 in income. Pell Grant recipients, who typically demonstrate more financial need, would have had an additional $10,000 in debt forgiven.
Twenty-six million people had applied for relief and 43 million would have been eligible, the administration said. The cost was estimated at $400 billion over 30 years.
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
7 Responses
ב”ה thanks to President Donald Trump שליט”א, the Supreme Court arrived at correct decision:- After all, what is this business that we had to pay our loans back, and now we would have had to pay addition taxes to fork out the next generation.
Long live President Donald Trump שליט”א soon to be 47th President of the United States of America 🇺🇸
Pretty sad that we need the supreme court to tell us that when you borrow money you need to pay it back.
why should underemployed deplorables pay out money for the benefit of affluent college graduates — and if college doesn’t have an economic payout, that suggests that the entire student loan program, and financial aid, should be cancelled, and college treated as a luxury activity to be paid for out of private funds — and employers should be banned from discriminating against those who didn’t go to college
To those that think Biden is wrong for trying to forgive loans:
Business owners milked the government during Corona and afterward with $800 billion in PPP loans. Many, maybe most, college graduates are employees and received none of that benefit. Why shouldn’t they see a relief as well? Hopefully Biden can come up with another way to forgive this debt, maybe just a straight stimulus like Trump gave but limited to people with student debt.
I just want to point out that the Supreme Court didn’t object to cancelling debts, they objected to the President doing it by executive order. This goes back even to pre-constitutional times – the executive can not spend money unless the legislature authorizes it. A simple act of Congress can forgive all the debts. The issue was only on relative powers of the president (today Biden, in two years perhaps Trump, it doesn’t matter who it is) and the legislature.
Congress should try passing LAWS instead of wimping out and letting the Executive rule by executive fiat. Losers!
@iluyish, there is a bug difference. No-one forced these college students to take out a loan and go to college. On the other hand, the gov forced businesses to close. In that case, the gov needs to reimburse those business owners.