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President Joe Biden’s policy intended to allow eligible Americans to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debts, benefiting tens of millions of people. As my MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin explained, Republican-appointed justices on the U.S. Supreme Court had a different idea.
The Supreme Court on Friday struck down the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan that would have canceled billions of dollars of debt for millions of Americans. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the 6-3 decision, claiming the federal government lacked authority for the plan. But as Justice Elena Kagan pointed out in her dissent, it was the majority, not the government, that overreached here.
Under the language of the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act (HEROES Act), the executive branch has the authority to provide relief to student loan recipients when there’s a “national emergency,” ensuring that the crisis doesn’t leave affected Americans in “a worse position financially.”
Given this rather straightforward statutory text, the Democratic White House pointed to the pandemic and its effects, took advantage of the powers created by the HEROES Act, and created a program for student loan debt relief. In the process, the president created a policy that would not only help those with significant debts, but also the larger economy.
The high court’s conservative majority, however, decided that the 20-year-old federal law wasn’t clear enough. Relying on a legal approach that Kagan described as “made up,” the Republican-appointed justices killed the Biden administration’s program altogether.
The result is a one-two punch for millions of young adults: At congressional Republicans’ insistence, the recent debt ceiling budget deal restarts the loan payments that had been paused during the Covid crisis, and now six members of the Supreme Court have scrapped the White House’s debt forgiveness plan.
Biden — who yesterday said this is not a “normal” Supreme Court, after the same six justices ended affirmative action in higher education admissions — issued a lengthy written statement this afternoon, emphasizing, among other things, the political party responsible for fighting his policy so aggressively.
“The hypocrisy of Republican elected officials is stunning,” the Democrat said. “They had no problem with billions in pandemic-related loans to businesses — including hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of dollars for their own businesses. And those loans were forgiven. But when it came to providing relief to millions of hard-working Americans, they did everything in their power to stop it.”
Biden added, “I believe that the court’s decision to strike down our student debt relief plan is wrong. But I will stop at nothing to find other ways to deliver relief to hard-working middle-class families. My Administration will continue to work to bring the promise of higher education to every American.”
The president is expected to announce new measures in a couple of hours. Watch this space.
Update: The new White House plan apparently involves pursuing related goals through the Higher Education Act, though Biden conceded this afternoon this will likely "take longer."