June 30, 2023
You may be wondering why the Supreme Court struck down the President’s student loan forgiveness program?
You’ve come to the right place.
First you have to understand there were two cases the Supreme Court heard on this matter. One was brought by two students who sued because they didn’t qualify for the program and the other was brought by 6 GOP-led states who said the program would have hurt their tax revenue.
The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the case brought by the student borrowers saying they didn’t have standing to even bring the case in the first place.
The other case – Biden vs. Nebraska which was a six to three ruling with all the conservatives in the majority and all the liberals in the minority — found two things. One – that Missouri, which was one of the states bringing the case did have standing because the state could prove it would suffer an injury because its MOHELA program which services student loans would lose tax revenue if the forgiveness program was implemented. And two – that the President overstepped his authority in using the HEROES act of 2003 to justify how he could forgive a total of more than $400 billion in federal student loans.
In the majority opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts said – “the HEROES act allows the secretary to “waive or modify” existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the education act, but does not allow the secretary to rewrite that statute…the secretary’s new “modifications” of these provisions were not “moderate” or “minor.” Instead, they created a novel and fundamentally different loan forgiveness program.”
In her dissent Justice Kagan says the court shouldn’t have granted standing in either case. She says the court shouldn’t have even heard these cases. The first line in her dissent says — “in every respect, the court today exceeds its proper, limited role in our nation’s governance.”
Regardless of the dissent, President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program is over.
Read the Biden v Nebraska ruling here.
