These are just a few words, but they are among the most important that have been written in modern American history:
The text of the HEROES Act does not authorize the Secretary’s loan forgiveness program. The Secretary’s power under the Act to “modify” does not permit “basic and fundamental changes in the scheme” designed by Congress.
Thus did the Supreme Court strike down President Biden’s illegal executive order, and prevent him from spending hundreds of billions of dollars without legislative consent.
This case has been referred to as “the student loan case.” Really, though, it should have been called “the Article I case.” In this particular instance, the executive was trying to transfer the liability for student loans to the taxpayer. But what was at stake was much, much broader than that. What was at stake, ultimately, was our system of separation of powers.
Article I of the Constitution holds that “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.” That Congress has control of revenue, the power “To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts,” the power “To borrow Money on the credit of the United States,” and much more. If Congress doesn’t act in any of those areas, the president is not permitted to do so in lieu. As everyone knows — and as President Biden knew at the time he acted — Congress has not passed a law that allows for the forgiveness (read: transference) of student-loan debt. Nancy Pelosi confirmed this in 2021. So did the Department of Education. That Biden did it anyway represented a disqualifying abandonment of his oath of office.
Biden was never going to get away with this on the merits. His case was risible from start to finish. But he could, theoretically, have got away with it if the Court had decided that nobody had the authority (“standing”) to challenge him. Had that happened, the judiciary would have signaled that it was powerless in the face of executive overreach (of the sort that James Madison described as “tyranny“), and a terrible precedent would have been set: that if the executive branch could find a way to ignore the Constitution that did not meet the Supreme Court’s standing rules, it could get away with it. This would have been deleterious for America.
Happily, the Court did its job and upheld our framework of government. Today is a day for rejoicing that it did. Article I is still intact. Happy Independence Day to all.