SCOTUS Cites Nancy Pelosi’s Own Words to Justify Blocking Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan
A set of 2021 comments by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ended up undermining President Joe Biden’s efforts to implement a student loan cancellation plan.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Biden could not excuse student debt repayments through the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (HEROES Act) or any other authority belonging to the executive branch. Reinforcing their opinion, the court’s majority noted a July 28, 2021 press conference in which Pelosi also cast doubt on the possibility of student loan cancellation.
“As then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi explained: ‘People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress,’” reads the majority opinion (pdf) as written by Chief Justice John Roberts….