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BOSTON (State House News Service) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday gutted the Biden administration's effort to forgive about $430 billion in student loan debt, deeming unconstitutional a plan that the White House estimated would bring relief to one in nine Massachusetts residents.
In a 6-3 ruling that broke down along ideological lines, the nation's high court said a 2003 law known as the HEROES Act does not give President Joe Biden and his Cabinet the authority to cancel loan debt through executive, rather than congressional, action.
"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," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
Republican-appointed Judges Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joined Roberts in the majority.
Democrat-nominated Judges Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, arguing that the HEROES Act in fact awarded the executive branch the authority to forgive loans. They also criticized the court itself for allowing the case brought by public officials in several Republican-controlled states to advance, saying state governments themselves would not be affected by a plan dealing with individual borrowers and federally issued education loans.
"In giving those States a forum -- in adjudicating their complaint -- the Court forgets its proper role," Kagan wrote. "The Court acts as though it is an arbiter of political and policy disputes, rather than of cases and controversies."
Biden last year instructed the U.S. Department of Education to cancel up to $10,000 in loan debt it held for borrowers who did not receive Pell Grants and up to $20,000 in loan debt for Pell Grant recipients. It would have limited relief to single borrowers who earned less than $125,000 per year and married couples who earned less than $250,000 per year.
The White House estimated in September the plan would have provided relief to about 813,000 people in Massachusetts, nearly half of whom are Pell Grant recipients.
Written By: Chris Lisinski/SHNS
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