Over a month after President Biden’s brazen attempt to boost his flailing presidency by paying off American college grads with so-called student loan forgiveness, a new lawsuit is finally calling the ploy what it is: a direct violation of the Constitution and federal law.
Filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) on behalf of the Brown County Taxpayers Association, the lawsuit contends that the Biden administration’s “One-Time Student Loan Debt Relief Plan” violates the core tenets of the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine, with the legal group arguing that “Biden created [the] program unilaterally and without any legal authority from Congress.”
“That’s not how lawmaking works in America, at least since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, when the Founding Fathers complained that King George III imposed ‘Taxes on us without our Consent’ and with them ‘erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance,'” the lawsuit reads. “President Biden’s fiat here is nothing more than a modern-day Stamp Act — a massive taxing and spending policy passed without participation of the People’s representatives.”
In addition to Biden, the suit also lists Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Chief Operating Officer of Federal Student Aid Richard Cordray, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Office of Federal Student Aid as defendants in the case.
Among the other major legal issues raised, the filing includes the federal government’s purported violation of the equal protection doctrine. WILL points to several instances of the Biden White House implying that the administration created the program “with the express purpose of advancing ‘racial equity.'”
“Explaining that the purpose of the program is to ‘narrow the racial wealth gap,’ the White House explained that the program is intended to help ‘black students,’ ‘black borrowers,’ and ‘other borrowers of color,'” the lawsuit reads. “As such, Defendants have articulated an improper racial motive in creating and implementing the One-Time Student Loan Debt Relief Plan.”
In the suit, WILL also contends that Biden’s loan bailout scheme violates the Administrative Procedures Act “by exceeding statutory authority because the cancellation plan is not authorized under the HEROES Act,” which the administration has cited as legal justification for the policy.
Under the HEROES Act, the executive is granted the power to waive loans when “necessary in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency.”
While intended for U.S. military service members in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Education Department has attempted to rationalize that the “COVID-19 pandemic” fulfills the HEROES Act’s definition of a national emergency, despite Biden himself declaring the pandemic to be “over” during a recent “60 Minutes” interview.
In the meantime, WILL has requested a preliminary injunction to bar the cancellation of any federal student loan before a decision is reached, as well as a restraining order until such an injunction is granted.
In addition to WILL, a coalition of six states has also filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over the proposed program, saying the president is overstepping his legal authority and citing his comments on “60 Minutes” as proof that the pandemic is over.
