WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday struck down President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, as a Missouri-created student loan agency helped six conservative-led states dash the hopes of millions of Americans hoping to be relieved of up to $20,000 of their debt.
In an 6-3 opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the Biden administration had gone too far in relieving up to 40 million Americans of some or all of their student loans, saying the plan went beyond the power Congress granted the Department of Education under a 9/11-era law that gave the administration the ability to make changes to the student loan program in emergencies.
“Today, we have concluded that an instrumentality created by Missouri, governed by Missouri, and answerable to Missouri is indeed part of Missouri; that the words “waive or modify” do not mean “completely rewrite”;” and that our precedent – old and new – requires that Congress speak clearly before a Department Secretary can unilaterally alter large sections of the American economy,” Roberts wrote.
