The six conservative justices on the Supreme Court ruled that President Joe Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness plan is unconstitutional on Friday.
The 6-3 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts means that the 26 million Americans who signed up for the debt forgiveness program will no longer have their debt partially or fully wiped away.
Biden announced his plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt for more than 40 million loan holders in August 2022. The plan authorized $20,000 in relief to Pell Grant recipients and $10,000 in relief to other borrowers who made less than $125,000 a year in 2020 or 2021. In authorizing the forgiveness plan, Biden cited his authority under the 2003 HEROES Act, passed in the wake of 9/11, to “waive” or “modify” student loan debt terms during a national emergency ― in this case, the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the court disagreed. Roberts’ opinion declared the debt forgiveness plan to be in violation of the court’s so-called…