I thought that President Biden’s claim of authority to wipe out some $430 billion in student debt under the HEROES Act was absurd. As I noted when President Biden exercised his purported authority to confer the giveaway, the issue of standing was key to the outcome of the two cases challenging Biden’s purported authority. Today the Supreme recognized Missouri’s standing and held 6-3 in Nebraska v. Biden that the HEROES Act doesn’t cut it. Biden lacks such royal authority. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion of the Court. It’s all over for Biden’s student loan giveaway.
By contrast, the Court held that plaintiffs in Department of Education v. Brown lacked standing in a 9-0 opinion written by Justice Alito. I thought the standing argument in that case was beyond attenuated. It was an embarrassment.
When these cases were in process, Politico Playbook quoted the requisite (anonymous) “person familiar with the administration’s thinking” on the cases: “We’re confident we’re going to win because the other side doesn’t have standing.” Wrong, moose breath.
The Playbook gurus conjured this unintentionally hilarious nightmare: “The alternative, in any case, is chilling: Granting these litigants standing could open the door to a flood of future challenges to federal initiatives.” Their enthusiasm will miraculously revive if a Republican is ever elected president again.
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