Ah shucks. I was so hoping I could pay off some deadbeat's student loans. Looks like the Supremes are likely to play zone defense.
Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Reckoning
The Supreme Court agrees to hear a challenge by the states.
By The Editorial Board, WSJ
Updated Dec. 1, 2022 7:22 pm ET
Not much of the federal government is working well these days, but the courts are holding up their end. The latest example is the Supreme Court’s order Thursday that it will hear the merits of a challenge to President Biden’s $420 billion unilateral cancellation of student loans.
The Biden Justice Department had asked the Court to vacate a lower-court injunction against the loan cancellation. Instead the Justices deferred that request and agreed to hear the constitutional challenge brought by several states (Biden v. Nebraska). The Court agreed to Justice’s request to hear the case in expedited fashion, so the challenge will skip further proceedings in lower courts and go directly to the Supremes, with oral argument in February. A ruling is likely by the end of June.
This is excellent news. President Biden has tried to pull a constitutional trick for the ages by ordering the forgiveness of up to $20,000 per borrower on his own authority. Congress had given the executive no such power, as even Mr. Biden had previously noted.
But an election loomed, Democrats looked to be in trouble, and in August the President declared one of the greatest vote-buying exercises of all time. The Education Department located a heretofore obscure corner of the 2003 Heroes Act that supposedly justified mass loan cancellations owing to the Covid emergency. It’s a classic example of a political need in rampaging search of a legal excuse.
The Education Department hoped to start writing off debt immediately, until six states run by Republicans sued. They claim the President exceeded his constitutional power, usurping Congress’s power of the purse, and that it would reduce state revenue. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction, citing the potential “irreversible” harm if the forgiveness proceeded.
The Administration seems to have known it is in legal trouble because last month it extended its moratorium on student loan payments. They were scheduled to resume in January, but now they won’t resume until 60 days after litigation is resolved—or 60 days after June 30 if the litigation isn’t resolved by then. The end of June happens to be the usual end of the Supreme Court’s term.
The Court’s decision to hear the case on an expedited basis suggests at least four Justices are concerned about the weighty constitutional questions. If the Justices agreed with the Administration’s argument that the states lacked standing to sue because they aren’t really harmed by the loan cancellation, the Court could have simply vacated the Eighth Circuit’s injunction. The cancellations would have proceeded, and the issue would be moot.
Now they’ll hear the merits of what will be one of the most consequential cases on the separation of powers in American history. If a President can burden taxpayers to the tune of $420 billion with so flimsy a legal rationale, and without the consent of Congress, we are close to government by King that America’s Founders wrote the Constitution to avoid.
The Justices are doing their constitutional duty in policing abuses by the political branches, and much is at stake in how they decide this case.
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