Supreme Court takes up another challenge to Biden's student loan plan

By 
 December 13, 2022

The Supreme Court has agreed to weigh another legal challenge to President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, potentially imperiling the polarizing policy.

The case will be heard in February or March, along with a separate challenge to Biden's plan, Fox Business reported.

Supreme Court weighs student loan challenge

The Supreme Court will weigh whether borrowers Myra Brown and Alexander Taylor have standing and whether Biden's plan is legal, the court announced Monday. Challengers to Biden's power grab have had difficulty proving standing, which requires showing they have been specifically harmed by the policy.

Brown is not eligible for relief because her loans are held by commercial entities, while Taylor is eligible for $10,000, which is half of what Biden wants to give Pell Grant recipients. The challengers complained that Biden's plan violated notice-and-comment rules.

A federal judge appointed by President Trump, Mark Pittman, sided with the borrowers and blocked Biden's plan as an affront to the separation of powers.

"In this country, we are not ruled by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a phone. Instead, we are ruled by a Constitution that provides for three distinct and independent branches of government,” Pittman wrote.

Biden's scheme

Six Republican states separately challenged Biden's loan forgiveness plan, which led to a block from the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear that case this month after Biden asked the court to intervene and lift the injunction.

Biden has renewed a moratorium on student loans until June to give the court time to make a decision, a move that could cost taxpayers billions in unpaid interest.

If the Supreme Court does not block Biden's forgiveness plan, it could cost taxpayers $400 billion.

"Unfair"

Biden's move to wipe away up to $20,000 in college debt in the lead-up to the midterm elections polarized the country, with opponents blasting it as an unlawful, blatant patronage scheme that rewards degree holders who tend to vote for the Democratic party.

But Biden has asserted that it's "unfair" to expect borrowers to pay back their loans.

"It isn't fair to ask tens of millions of borrowers eligible for relief to resume their student debt payments while the courts consider the lawsuit," Biden said.

The program remains blocked, for now. But the Supreme Court is not expected to give Biden a favorable hearing after rebuking his brazen overreach on vaccine mandates and environmental regulation, among other issues.

" A free people [claim] their rights, as derived from the laws of nature."
Thomas Jefferson
© 2015 - 2024 Conservative Institute. All Rights Reserved.