The Biden Justice Department had asked the Court to vacate a lower-court injunction against the loan cancellation. Instead the Justices deferred that request and agreed to hear the constitutional challenge brought by several states (Biden v. Nebraska). The Court agreed to Justice’s request to hear the case in expedited fashion, so the challenge will skip further proceedings in lower courts and go directly to the Supremes, with oral argument in February. A ruling is likely by the end of June.
This is excellent news. President Biden has tried to pull a constitutional trick for the ages by ordering the forgiveness of up to $20,000 per borrower on his own authority. Congress had given the executive no such power, as even Mr. Biden had previously noted.
But an election loomed, Democrats looked to be in trouble, and in August the President declared one of the greatest vote-buying exercises of all time. The Education Department located a heretofore obscure corner of the 2003 Heroes Act that supposedly justified mass loan cancellations owing to the Covid emergency. It’s a classic example of a political need in rampaging search of a legal excuse.