SCOTUS delivers blow to Biden’s massive student loan handout

Published

2 years ago

June 30, 2023

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The Supreme Court on Friday blocked the Biden administration’s student loan handout.

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Biden administration cannot go forward with its student loan debt handout program.

In a 6-3 decision, the court held that federal law does not allow the Secretary of Education to cancel more than $430 billion in student loan debt.

"The Secretary’s plan canceled roughly $430 billion of federal student loan balances, completely erasing the debts of 20 million borrowers and lowering the median amount owed by the other 23 million from $29,400 to $13,600," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. "Six States sued, arguing that the HEROES Act does not authorize the loan cancellation plan. We agree."

President Biden strongly disagreed with the court's decision and will make an announcement later today detailing new actions to protect student loan borrowers, a White House source told Fox News Digital.

BIDEN STUDENT LOAN ‘REDISTRIBUTION’ COULD BENEFIT FELONS, GOP OFFICIALS CLAIM IN LETTER DEMANDING DETAILS

President Biden’s DOE is planning “workarounds” if the Supreme Court rules against student loan forgiveness. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci / AP Newsroom)

The White House source said Biden intends to blame Republicans for denying student borrowers the relief he promised to deliver to them.

Biden's student loan initiative, which had been on hold pending litigation, involved the federal government providing up to $10,000 in debt relief – and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients – for people who make less than $125,000 a year. The program was expected to cost the government more than $400 billion.

Biden made the unprecedented push for debt cancelation in August 2022, and his administration accepted some 16 million applications before Republicans objected, and the program was put on hold.

SUPREME COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF COLORADO GRAPHIC DESIGNER WHO REFUSED TO CREATE SAME-SEX WEDDING WEBSITES

A visitor with a sign regarding student loan payments outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 27, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Republicans argued Biden lacked the authority to unilaterally forgive student loans. Estimates from the Congressional Budget Office said Biden's plan would cost taxpayers roughly $400 billion. Republicans were outraged at the total, arguing the forgiveness would be unfair to those who either paid their way through college, repaid their loans or never attended college in the first place.

The justices heard two separate challenges to the law. In one case, Department of Education v. Brown, the court said a pair of private borrowers who sought to challenge the loan forgiveness plan lacked standing to sue.

The second and more relevant case is Biden v. Nebraska, where six states sued challenging the loan forgiveness scheme. The court found that Missouri at least had standing to sue because the program would open a nonprofit government corporation set up by the state, called MOHELA, to face an estimated $44 million in annual fees. READ THE SUPREME COURT’S DECISION BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE

Biden's administration had relied on a federal statute, called the HEROES Act, to enact the plan, claiming the law gave the secretary of education power to "waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to the student financial assistance programs … as the secretary deems necessary in connection with a war or other military national emergency."

The court majority shot down that argument. "The authority to ‘modify’ statutes and regulations allows the Secretary to make modest adjustments and additions to existing regulations," Roberts wrote, "not transform them."

Roberts went on to say the Department of Education's "modifications" to the law "created a novel and fundamentally different loan forgiveness program" than what Congress intended in the HEROES Act. This program effectively granted loan forgiveness "to nearly every borrower in the country," Roberts said.

BIDEN VETOES CANCELING HIS $400 BILLION STUDENT LOAN HANDOUT, VOWS HE'S ‘NOT GOING TO BACK DOWN'

President Biden faced opposition to his student loan forgiveness program. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images / Getty Images)

"The Secretary's comprehensive debt cancelation plan cannot fairly be called a waiver — it not only nullifies existing provisions, but augments and expands them dramatically," the chief justice wrote. "It cannot be mere modification, because it constitutes ‘effectively the introduction of a whole new regime' … And it cannot be some combination of the two, because when the Secretary seeks to add to existing law, the fact that he has ‘waived’ certain provisions does not give him a free pass to avoid the limits inherent in the power to ‘modify.'"

"However broad the meaning of ‘waive or modify,’ that language cannot authorize the kind of exhaustive rewriting of the statute that has taken place here."

The court's three liberal justices dissented. "The majority overrides the combined judgment of the Legislative and Executive Branches, with the consequence of eliminating loan forgiveness for 43 million Americans. I respectfully dissent from that decision," Justice Elena Kagan wrote.

Biden's Education Department had already been exploring potential workarounds to offer handouts via other means in anticipation of a ruling against the administration.

Republicans unveiled their own plan to address student loans and high college costs in June, introducing a series of five bills. The plan from Senate Republicans supports programs aimed at making sure students understand the real cost of college and also shuts off loans for programs that do not result in salaries that are high enough to justify those loans.

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"This would prevent some of the worst examples of students being exploited for profit. It would force schools to bring down cost and to compete for students. What an idea," Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said of the bill. "It would also protect students from getting buried in debt they can never, ever pay."

Fox News' Mark Meredith contributed to this report.

World

US-Saudi relationship feels tighter than ever as Trump signs flurry of deals

Published

2 hours ago

May 13, 2025

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US-Saudi relationship feels tighter than ever as Trump signs flurry of deals

In today’s Saudi Arabia, convention centres resemble palaces.

The King Abdul Aziz International Conference Centre was built in 1999 but inside it feels like Versailles.

Some might call it kitsch, but it’s a startling reflection of how far this country has come – the growth of a nation from desert bedouins to a vastly wealthy regional powerbroker in just one generation.

Trump latest: President signs huge arms deal with Saudi Arabia

At a bar overnight, over mocktails and a shisha, I listened to one young Saudi man tell me how his family had watched this transformation.

His father, now in his 60s, had lived the change – a child born in a desert tent, an upbringing in a dusty town, his 30s as a mujahideen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, his 40s in a deeply conservative Riyadh and now his 60s watching, wide-eyed, the change supercharged in recent years.

The last few years’ acceleration of change is best reflected in the social transformation. Women, unveiled, can now drive. Here, make no mistake, that’s a profound leap forward.

Through a ‘western’ lens, there’s a way to go – homosexuality is illegal here. That, and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, are no longer openly discussed here.

Bluntly, political and economic expedience have moved world leaders and business leaders beyond all that.

The guest list of delegates at the convention centre for the Saudi-US Investment Forum reads like a who’s who of America’s best business brains.

Signing a flurry of different deals worth about $600bn (£451bn) of inward investment from Saudi to the US – which actually only represent intentions or ‘memorandums of understanding’ at this stage – the White House said: “The deals… represent a new golden era of partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

“From day one, President Trump‘s America First Trade and Investment Policy has put the American economy, the American worker, and our national security first.”

That’s the answer when curious voters in faraway America wonder what this is all about.

With opulence and extravagance, this is about a two-way investment and opportunity.

There are defence deals – the largest defence sales agreement in history, at nearly $142bn (£106bn) – tech deals, and energy deals.

Underlying it all is the expectation of diplomatic cooperation, investment to further the geopolitical strategies for both countries on key global challenges.

In the convention centre’s gold-clad corridors, outside the plenary hall, there are reminders of the history of this relationship.

There is a ‘gallery of memories’ – the American presidents with the Saudi kings – stretching back to the historic 1945 meeting between Franklin D Roosevelt and King Saud on board the USS Quincy. That laid the foundation for the relationship we now see.

Curiously, the only president missing is Barack Obama. Sources suggested to me that this was a ‘mistake’. A convenient one, maybe.

It’s no secret that the US-Saudi relationship was at its most strained during his presidency. Obama’s absence would give Trump a chuckle.

Today, the relationship feels tighter than ever. There is a mutual respect between the president and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – Trump chose Saudi Arabia as his first foreign trip in his last presidency, and he’s done so again.

But there are differences this time. Both men are more powerful, more self-assured, and of course the region has changed.

There are huge challenges like Gaza, but the two men see big opportunities too. A deal with Iran, a new Syria, and Gulf countries that are global players.

It’s money, money, money here in Riyadh. Will that translate to a better, more prosperous and peaceful world? That’s the question.

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