The decision was a boon for Republicans who’ve been reeling since Biden announced the $400 billion plan this summer.
A federal judge in Texas blocked President Joe Biden’s student loan cancellation plan on Thursday evening, ruling that the effort to erase hundreds of billions of dollars in debt exceeds his executive authority and must be vacated.
In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump, called the program “one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States.”
“In this country, we are not ruled by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a phone,” Pittman wrote. “Instead, we are ruled by a Constitution that provides for three distinct and independent branches of government.”
The decision was a boon for Republicans who’ve been reeling since Biden announced the plan this summer. It came at the end of a week in which the red wave they hoped would propel them to control both chambers of Congress in midterm elections fizzled in spectacular fashion.
Biden waffled for 19 months over whether he had executive authority to cancel the student loan debt but ultimately sided with the progressive flank of the Democratic Party pushing him to do so as an act of economic and racial justice to provide significant relief to millions of borrowers coming out of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.
The plan, which would cancel $10,000 for borrowers making $125,000, or $250,000 for married couples, and $20,000 for those who also received federal Pell Grants, was estimated to cost up to $400 billion and wipe clean the student loan debt for an estimated 40 million borrowers.
The application for the debt cancellation went live last month and already 26 million borrowers had applied. The Supreme Court has twice rejected requests to block the student debt cancelation plan. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who takes emergency cases coming from the 7th Circuit, most recently rejected an effort last week to halt the program by two borrowers from Indiana who argued that they qualify for the debt relief but would be left worse off because of state tax consequences.
White House officials defended the use of executive authority, saying the Heroes Act gives the education secretary wide latitude to make such decisions during national emergencies. But conservatives, including Job Creators Network Foundation, the conservative advocacy group defending the two borrowers ineligible for the program who brought the lawsuit, characterized it as a massive and unlawful power grab.
“If the executive branch seeks to use that delegated power to create a law of vast economic and political significance, it must have clear congressional authorization,” Pittman wrote. “If not, the executive branch unconstitutionally exercises ‘legislative powers’ vested in Congress.”
The Justice Department announced it will appeal the ruling.
Notably, the debt relief plan was already paused, having been temporarily blocked by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that the administration “strongly” disagrees with the ruling and committed to borrowers that their applications for debt elimination would be “quickly processed” after the administration prevails in court.
“The president and this administration are determined to help working- and middle-class Americans get back on their feet, while our opponents – backed by extreme Republican special interests – sued to block millions of Americans from getting much-needed relief,” she said.
Education Secretary Migeul Cardona said that the program is “lawful and necessary to give borrowers and working families breathing room as they recover from the pandemic.”
“We are disappointed in the decision of the Texas court to block loan relief moving forward,” he said. “Amidst efforts to block our debt relief program, we are not standing down.”
