A coalition of states led by Kansas filed a lawsuit seeking to block President Biden’s latest plan to forgive student loan debt.
The lawsuit argues the plan violates the same principles as Biden’s previous debt relief attempt, which was struck down by the Supreme Court.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, who is leading the lawsuit, said Biden is trying to “twist” federal law to unilaterally cancel debt, which Congress would need to approve due to its massive cost shift to taxpayers.
“Not since the Civil War has a president told the Supreme Court, ‘Yeah you blocked me, but I’m gonna do it anyway.’” Kobach said. “Biden is trying to twist federal law once again, and his new plan is just as illegal as the old plan.”
“The Supreme Court could not have been clearer: President Biden cannot unilaterally cancel student debt and force taxpayers to bear the multi-billion-dollar cost,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said.
“This time they say, ‘Oh we’re just modifying the terms of debt repayment,’ but that’s not modifying the terms of debt repayment when you take the debt all the way down to zero and you don’t have to pay back the principal,” he said.
“It may just be coincidence, or it may be that the administration is attempting to curry favor with people who have student debt,” he said.
The lawsuit asserts the administration lacks authority to enact the debt relief by executive action alone and accuses Biden of disregarding Supreme Court rulings to push his political agenda before elections.
It aims to prevent Biden from unlawfully ignoring the law and high court decisions on the expansive use of executive power.
“Last time Defendants tried this the Supreme Court said that this action was illegal. Nothing since then has changed,” the lawsuit said.
“This lawsuit is now necessary to prevent Defendants from continuing to flout the law, which includes ignoring Supreme Court decisions,” the lawsuit said.
“This is not the first time Defendant Biden has taken actions that he publicly admits are likely unlawful. This is an administration that rules by will, not by law,” the lawsuit said.
“Although this round of unilateral debt nullification takes on a new name, with a different putative authority, it is every bit as improper as his first unlawful attempt at debt forgiveness in Biden v. Nebraska,” the lawsuit said.
“Indeed, as the Defendants scrape ever deeper into the barrel for legal pretexts to abolish student debts, the illegality of those artifices becomes more obvious. The authority that Defendants claim now lacks any substantive limits and amounts to claiming that they can abolish all student debt at any time by rulemaking alone,” the lawsuit said.
“The timing of these actions also makes plain their pretextual nature. The first round of debt relief was rushed out in time for the 2022 elections in a transparent bread-and-circuses attempt to boost base turnout and, in essence, buy votes with federal funds. This second round of debt cancellation also — by remarkable coincidence — manages to take effect shortly before the 2024 election,” the lawsuit said.
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