Sanity came to the rescue on Friday, June 30th. The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, officially put an end to the Biden student loan bailout. A glaring wrong was righted.
The only disappointing part of the news is that it was not a 9-0 decision. The 3 leftist members of the court showed their true colors in their dissent. They made it painfully obvious that if their personal politics conflict with the Constitution, they will choose their politics. To them, the Supreme Court, and courts in general, are just legislatures by another name. Separation of powers means nothing to them. If the executive branch brazenly oversteps its authority, they give it the green light, as long as they like the results.
The 3 leftist justices’ primary argument in favor of the Biden Bailout is the 2003 HEROS act, Public Law 108-76. The particular part of the law they claim gives the executive branch the authority to bailout unlimited federal student loans is Section 2, part (a), paragraph (1), which reads:
IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, unless enacted with specific reference to this section, the Secretary of Education (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) may waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision applicable to the student financial assistance programs under title IV of the Act as the Secretary deems necessary in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency to provide the waivers or modifications authorized by paragraph (2).
Because the law includes a provision for “national emergency”, the leftist justices determined that the executive branch could eliminate all federal student loan debt during the COVID-19 “national emergency”. Absent any other context, the leftist justices would be right. The HEROS act is far too broad and leaves too much to interpretation, like many laws passed by the legislature. Thankfully, the HEROS act is not the supreme law of the land, the Constitution is.
Article 1, Section 9, Paragraph 7 of the Constitution reads:
No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.
In order for the Biden Bailout to go forward, the United States would have to incur around $500 billion in debt. Not only has Congress not passed an appropriations bill to approve this spending, but Congress explicitly denied the Biden administration’s attempt to do so, as I noted in Strike Down the Debt Bailout. For the leftist justices to say that the HEROS act grants the executive branch the ability to spend $500 billion without congressional appropriation, as required by the Constitution, is absurd on its face.
For those of us who are interested in maintaining liberty, it is essential that the executive branch’s power be limited. When the executive oversteps its authority, and when the legislature is unable to act, the Supreme Court must step in. If the executive branch was in conservative hands, I expect the leftist justices would agree. The six conservative justices will have to keep up the good fight in the meantime.