John Roberts' Own Words Used Against Him in Student Loan Dissent

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan issued harsh words for Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the conservative-leaning court's opinion today after a 6-3 decision struck down the Biden administration's student loan debt cancellation plan.

As a result, Biden's attempted appeasement of a 2020 campaign promise is nixed. His administration wanted to wipe away up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 or households with less than $250,000 in income per year. Pell Grant recipients, who typically demonstrate more financial need, would have gotten an additional $10,000 in debt forgiven.

"The author of today's opinion once wrote that a 1970s-era standing decision 'became emblematic' of 'how utterly manipulable' this Court's standing law is 'if not taken seriously as a matter of judicial self-restraint,'" Kagan wrote, referring to Roberts in her dissent. "After today, no one will have to go back 50 years for the classic case of the Court manipulating standing doctrine, rather than obeying the edict to stay in its lane."

Regarding whether the executive branch overstepped its bounds, Kagan said that in the assumption that it did, it "does not license this Court to exceed its own role."

"Courts must still 'function as courts,' this one no less than others," she wrote. "And in our system, that means refusing to decide cases that are not really cases because the plaintiffs have not suffered concrete injuries."

The Supreme Court's six conservative justices actually quoted former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, as part of their opinion.

"People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness," Pelosi said during a 2021 press conference. "He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress."

Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, through the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, lacks the authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan principal.

"We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to 'waive or modify' existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, not to rewrite that statute from the ground up," Roberts wrote.

The Department of Education referred Newsweek to the White House when asked for comment.

"While we strongly disagree with the court, we prepared for this scenario," a White House source told Newsweek.

"The president will make clear he's not done fighting yet and will announce next steps to protect student loan borrowers," the source said. "We'll also be making it crystal clear to borrowers and their families that Republicans are responsible for denying them the relief that President Biden has been fighting to get to them."

In a tweet, Biden called the Supreme Court's decision "unthinkable," adding that "the fight isn't over."

Colin Pears, associate provost for student success and chief retention officer at the University of New England, told Newsweek that the ramifications of the decision will not just affect college graduates already in the workforce but also those who are presently mapping out their way toward a potential college degree.

Financial reasons are more often being cited as major reasons for individuals leaving institutions of higher learning, he said.

"If we're trying to ensure job security and future employment options for our young Americans, then we need to really consider student debt relief and educational debt relief in the broader scheme of things...Financial reasons are a driving factor in deterring people from continuing their education and likely in getting started pursuing a higher education degree altogether," Pears said.

Biden will reportedly go into more detail in a national address slated to begin at 3:30 p.m. ET this afternoon, followed by Cardona and National Economic Council Deputy Director Bharat Ramamurti speaking at 3:45 p.m., The Independent's Andrew Feinberg tweeted.

The Supreme Court, which includes three justices hand-picked by former President Donald Trump, may have given Biden a political lifeline considering his 2020 campaign promise that would have affected tens of millions of student loan borrowers—about 15 months before an election that could realistically pit Biden and Trump against each other once again.

As questions remain about how the Biden administration can successfully circumvent the Supreme Court's decision, Pears said some sort of consensus has to be reached between both parties because likely nobody "on either side of this issue is in denial that student debt is a critical issue in the United States right now."

"I think that the partisanship that has tied up this issue is really getting in the way of making progress for the benefit of the majority of Americans," Pears said. "I think that the posturing has to stop; I think that we need to look at the real statistics about where the student loan crisis is impacting the population.

"And I think we need to have some very intentional steps taken to reevaluate exactly our borrowing practices and our repayment practices, and these need to be in sync with a number of different socioeconomic issues that span the entire country."

Update 06/30/23, 2:24 p.m. ET: This story was updated with more information and comment by Colin Pears.