WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court dealt a blow to the Joe Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan on Friday. The court rejected the programme, which aimed to provide up to $20,000 in relief to millions of borrowers struggling with outstanding debt, CNN reported.
The decision in the court was 6-3 with Chief Justice John Roberts writing for the supermajority. Republican-led states and conservatives, challenging the Biden administration’s programme, said that it amounts to an unlawful effort to forgive an estimated $430 billion of federal student loan debt under the guise of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chief Justice John Roberts noted that the Biden administration and the US Secretary of Education rewrote the law. Roberts wrote that the Secretary’s comprehensive debt cancellation plan cannot be fairly termed as a “waiver,” according to CNN.
Roberts wrote, “The Secretary’s comprehensive debt cancellation plan cannot fairly be called a waiver, it not only nullifies existing provisions, but augments and expands them dramatically”. Robers further said, “However broad the meaning of ‘waive or modify’, that language cannot authorise the kind of exhaustive rewriting of the statute that has taken place here”, CNN reported.
The White House made use of the HEROES Act authority to waive the debt. John Roberts said that the US government required direct approval from Congress. “The question here is not whether something should be done; it is who has the authority to do it”.
The court’s decision implies that borrowers targeted by US President Joe Biden’s plan will not get any relief. Monthly payment obligations that were halted during the Covid-19 pandemic is due to start in October, the report said.
The White House announced that 26 million applications were received for the programme before a lower court in Texas announced a countrywide injunction in November, according to CNN report. It further said that 16 million of those applications had been given approval for relief. As per the news report, the US government’s plan would have given assistance to borrowers who make less than $1,25,000 a year and $2,50,000 for households in 2020 or 2021. (ANI)