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SCOTUS Ruling

ROBERTS: 'Question Not Whether Something Should Be Done; it's Who Has the Authority to Do it'

posted by Hannity Staff - 6.30.23

It’s the last day before the Supreme Court’s summer recess —and they’re dropping bombs! President Biden’s plan for a $400 billion student loan handout went down in flames on Friday, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the majority opinion.

According to The New York Post, “[the] six conservative justices ruled the $400 billion plan could not use a 2003 law meant to help veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as a vehicle to implement the program.”

From Roberts’ opinion:

“Last year, the Secretary of Education established the first comprehensive student loan forgiveness program, invoking the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (HEROES Act) for authority to do so.”

“The Secretary’s plan canceled roughly $430 billion of federal student loan balances, completely erasing the debts of 20 million borrowers and lowering the median amount owed by the other 23 million from $29,400 to $13,600.  … Six States sued, arguing that the HEROES Act does not authorize the loan cancellation plan. We agree.”

“The question here is not whether something should be done; it is who has the authority to do it,” the chief justice added. “So too here, where the Secretary of Education claims the authority, on his own, to release 43 million borrowers from their obligations to repay $430 billion in student loans. The Secretary has never previously claimed powers of this magnitude”.

From The New York Post:

Biden’s plan, announced in August 2022, would have written off up to $10,000 in federal student debt for Americans earning under $125,000 and households making under $250,000. Up to $20,000 would have been forgiven to recipients of Pell Grants. At the time the case was argued, in late February, the White House said 26 million people had applied to have their school debt forgiven, with 16 million approved.

The successful case against the bailout was brought by six Republican-led states: Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina.

The court also heard a case brought by two borrowers who did not qualify for the program’s full benefits.

Their case was unanimously rejected by the justices, who found the pair lacked standing.

Republicans said Biden’s plan amounted to a bailout of upper-class, college-educated Americans — a key Democratic constituency — on the backs of blue-collar taxpayers.

This story is developing…