The Supreme Court on Friday struck down President Joe Biden’s signature initiative to cancel student loan debt for more than 40 million Americans.
The Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Student Act of 2003 (HEROES) program would have forgiven eligible borrowers of up to $20,000 each, costing some $400 billion overall, but it was blocked by an appeals court in October.
The justices were split on the decision 6-3, with the conservative majority saying the president—and his secretary of education—do not have the authority to unilaterally act without congressional approval.
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“The Secretary asserts that the HEROES Act grants him the authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan principal,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority opinion. “It does not. We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to ‘waive or modify’ existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, not to rewrite that statute from the ground up.”
In making his case, Roberts cited former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, noting that the California Democrat said in July 2021 that people “think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress.”
The case hinged on one’s particular reading of the HEROES Act, with Republicans largely interpreting the version of the act passed by Congress as not allowing for Biden’s debt relief plan. The majority of Democrats, however, argued that the act clearly gave Biden all the leeway he needed to cancel student debt.
“Congress authorized the forgiveness plan (among many other actions); the Secretary put it in place; and the President would have been accountable for its success or failure,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent for the court’s liberal wing. “But this Court today decides that some 40 million Americans will not receive the benefits the plan provides, because (so says the Court) that assistance is too ‘significant.’”
Indeed, Kagan argued, “The Court’s first overreach in this case is deciding it at all.” She also noted that there was “nothing personal in the dispute here.”
Roughly 26 million people applied for relief under the program, and about 16 million had already been approved by the Department of Education. Interest will begin accruing again in September, and payments will be due beginning in October.
Unsurprisingly, reaction among pols was mixed and hewed closely to party lines.
On the right, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) applauded the end to “a massive giveaway to the wealthy, who benefited disproportionately from Biden’s scheme.” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) tweeted that her constituents “should not be forced to pay for coastal elites to get their PhD in gender studies.”
Across the aisle, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) posted on Twitter, “Let me be clear: @POTUS had the authority to cancel student loan debt. This is a terrible decision and we will fight back.” And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wrote, “This disappointing and cruel student debt ruling shows the callousness of the MAGA Republican-controlled Supreme Court. The fight will not end here. The Biden administration has remaining legal routes to provide broad-based student debt cancellation.”
Pelosi decried the “crisis of debt” she said will hold people back from buying homes and starting businesses.
“Wrongly, the Majority Opinion in this case ignores the convincing arguments on the President’s legal authority that were made in the last year by the Department of Education and by former House Education Committee Chairman George Miller,” she said. (A source close to Pelosi told The Daily Beast on Friday that her 2021 statement cited by Roberts was a response to what was at the time a theoretical scenario, but that her thinking had evolved in the time since.)
In a statement, the Legal Aid Society said the Supreme Court’s ruling amounts to “a de facto salary cut” that will hit regular Americans hard—including those who help the less fortunate in other, workaday courtrooms.
“Public defenders and civil legal services employees often shoulder exorbitant amounts of student loan debt, which impedes their ability to remain in public service, pay rent, raise a family, and save for the future,” the organization said.
A USA Today/Ipsos poll released in May showed 47 percent of Americans were in favor of federal student loan forgiveness of up to $20,000 for those from low-income families, and up to $10,000 for others. Just under 40 percent said they supported loan forgiveness for those earning less than $125,000 a year, or married couples earning under $250,000. But only 29 percent of those polled said they approved of broad student loan relief for all borrowers, regardless of income.
The ruling came a day after the conservative-majority court struck down affirmative action admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, calling them racially biased.
