https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-judge-declares-bidens-student-debt-relief-plan-unconstitutional-2022-11-11/
In his 26-page ruling, Pittman said it was irrelevant if Biden's plan was good public policy because the program was "one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States."
Pittman wrote that the HEROES Act - a law that provides loan assistance to military personnel and that was relied upon by the Biden administration to enact the relief plan - did not authorize the $400 billion student loan forgiveness program.
That said, do not panic. We know how Texas judges tend to be, and the SCOTUS has denied several appeals of Biden’s student loan program in the past. This judge is trying to argue the following:
- That the loan forgiveness program doesn’t qualify under the 2003 HEROES act because there isn’t a national emergency right now, even though Biden just extended the COVID-19 national emergency through Jan 13 2023. This rests on a statement Biden made at a press conference a few months ago that COVID-19 was over
- That the HEROES act doesn’t authorize loan forgiveness anyway. It certainly authorizes the Secretary of Education to waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to any Title IV student financial assistance program deemed necessary due to national emergencies, and I think the DoE has a pretty solid argument that this program is authorized due to the very broad authority given the Secretary of Education.
- Because this program isn’t covered by the HEROES act, there should have been a notice-and-comment period, and so the plaintiffs were injured by not being given it.
- Therefore the program is vacated.
I’m not a lawyer but my reading of this is that the judge is full of shit by trying to say that the COVID-19 health emergency isn’t enough of an emergency for the HEROES act, and something something forgiveness isn’t specifically authorized under the HEROES act anyway.
If any lawyers want to chime in with their opinion of the judge’s ruling, I’d appreciate hearing it. Here’s a direct link to the text of the ruling itself, which I read in full before posting this: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/zgvobwqaapd/11102022studentloan.pdf
Thanks for reading. And remember, do not panic.
