In a double blow to US President Joe Biden from the US Supreme Court after it nixed race-conscious college admissions yesterday, the apex court on Friday struck down his $ 400 billion student loan forgiveness program.
In another 6-3 ruling, the conservative majority court — with three liberal justices dissenting — said Biden’s plan to wipe out debts for 26 million Americans was unconstitutional and an overreach of his executive power.
US Supreme Court strikes down race-based college admissions
The US Supreme Court on Thursday outlawed race as a factor in college admissions, saying such a policy violates the American Constitution. The ruling came to the relief and delight of many students of Indian/Asian origin, who, although a minority in the US, have argued that such a policy
The ruling is another massive political setback for US President and the Democratic Party, which was going into the 2024 election cycle on the strength of a populist program that allowed millions of students to pause loan payments during the pandemic, and later to forgive $10,000 in debt for individuals earning less than $ 125,000 per year (or for households earning less than $250,000).
The loan waiver doubled to $20,000 for low-income families receiving Pell grants, a financial aid package for the relatively poor.
The administration had already approved 16 million applications of the nearly 26 million borrowers who have applied for loan forgiveness.
In all, some 20 million would have emerged with a clean slate in a country where high and rising cost of education has resulted in a $ 1.6 trillion debt owed by 45 million people.
The issue is now expected to becoming a political lightning rod in the run up to 2024 elections, with the Biden administration likely to use executive means to get around the court ruling.
“Extremists on the Supreme Court have once again substituted politics for the rule of law, but this fight is not over. The president has more tools to #CancelStudentDebt, and he must use them,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, a former law professor, tweeted.