The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday heard Attorney General Alan Wilson’s and the states’ challenge to the Biden administration’s unilateral and unlawful discharge of hundreds of billions of dollars in student-loan debt. At stake is more than the massive $430 billion-plus impact on the federal budget—the case poses a major test for the separation of powers under the Constitution.
“No matter how much Joe Biden wants to give away all this taxpayer money, he simply doesn’t have the authority to do it,” Attorney General Wilson said. “Student loan forgiveness must go through Congress, and it already rejected the idea. Congress debated at least 80 loan forgiveness bills in the 2019-2020 session and did not pass any of them. When a person takes out a loan, he or she shouldn’t expect the federal government to pay it off or forgive it.”
Creating a roughly half-trillion-dollar loan-cancellation program that extends to nearly all borrowers is a stunning exertion of power and a matter of great economic and political significance. The administration rests its argument on the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (HEROES Act), a limited bill created for a different purpose.
The HEROES Act simply does not justify the Secretary’s sweeping creation of this discharge program. That Act was enacted shortly after the start of the Iraq War, primarily to ensure that active-duty military may pause their student-loan payments while serving our country. Every congressional finding supporting the Act focused on providing relief to people serving in the “military” for “our nation’s defense.” Congress gave no hint when adopting the HEROES Act that it intended to eliminate student loans, let alone the massive amount of debt canceled through this program. And no administration has used it to erase student-loan debt.
The states are asking the Supreme Court to uphold the Eighth Circuit’s injunction that blocks the student-debt cancellation.
You can read the states’ filing here.