Republicans Search for Someone Who Can Sue Over Biden's Student Loan Debt Plan

[Morrison71]

GOP Hunts for Plaintiff to Sue Over Student Loan Debt Plan

Conservative legal groups are exploring who would have legal standing to sue. "It’s on shaky legal ground at best.”

time.com

To find the authority to cancel billions of dollars in student loans, President Biden turned to two words in a 2003 law: "national emergency."

President George W. Bush had troops in Afghanistan and Iraq when Congress passed the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003. The bill, also known as the HEROES Act of 2003, gives the Secretary of Education authority to change student financial assistance programs during a war, military operation, or "national emergency."

Nineteen years later, the Biden administration cited that law this month in announcing a plan to forgive up to $10,000 of student loan debt (and $20,000 of education debt for Pell Grant recipients) for those earning less than $125,000. The national emergency it cited was the COVID-19 pandemic and economic fallout stemming from it.

That reasoning is almost certain to be challenged in court. But who can legally challenge the order is unclear. As soon as Biden announced his order, various conservative legal groups began exploring who would have legal standing to sue, which would require proving they would be harmed by Biden's order. One possibility: the House could sue over the order next year, if Republicans win enough seats to take control in the fall.
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Since Biden announced the order on Aug. 24, legal groups and experts have speculated on who might have standing to challenge it. Companies that service the student loans may attempt to prove they've been harmed. A person who makes an income just over the $125,000 threshold for forgiveness could potentially claim to have standing.

Or one of the chambers of Congress could try to take the Biden Administration to court, arguing that Biden's loan action steps on congressional power over the nation's finances. But such a move could only happen if Republicans won enough seats to take control of the House or Senate.

Such a suit would not be unprecedented. In 2014, the Republican-controlled House voted to sue the Obama administration over its application of the Affordable Care Act. Though House Republicans were ultimately granted standing to sue, that lawsuit ended up having little effect on the implementation of the law. In 2019, House Democrats sued the Trump administration over its spending on building a border wall.