SCOTUS Evokes Pelosi in Decision Against Student Loan Cancellation: President ‘Does Not Have That Power’

Chief Justice John Roberts cited former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in the Supreme Court’s decision Friday to toss out President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loans at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.

Roberts, who authored the court’s majority opinion, noted that Pelosi rejected the idea in a press conference in 2021 that the president had the unilateral authority to wipe away such loans.

“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,” Pelosi said on July 28, 2021.

“That has to be an act of Congress,” she added.

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The reference came as part of the high court’s 6–3 decision to block the Department of Education’s plan to erase about $430 billion in student loan debt through the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act.

Republicans widely criticized the plan, which multiple federal courts previously also blocked, in the leadup to the Supreme Court’s decision.

They condemned it, in part, as a massive transfer of wealth to top income earners with college degrees and away from, according to the House Ways and Means Committee, the 87 percent of Americans who do not have student loans.

Erasing the loans would exacerbate inflation and bypass imperative congressional input, critics also contended.

Roberts zeroed in on the latter point, writing, “Today, we have concluded … that our precedent—old and new—requires that Congress speak clearly before a Department Secretary can unilaterally alter large sections of the American economy.”

Pelosi, who later became an advocate of Biden’s debt cancellation plan, agreed with Roberts’ sentiment in 2021, according to her comments that year.

Pelosi did not publicly acknowledge that Roberts had named her in the opinion, but the California Democrat issued a statement Friday denouncing the decision by the “Republican supermajority” on the court, which currently seats six Republican-appointed and three Democrat-appointed justices.

“The Republican supermajority on the Supreme Court cruelly denied more than 40 million Americans deeply needed student debt relief,” Pelosi stated. “In doing so, the Court allows a crisis of debt to continue holding back families from buying homes, starting businesses and making ends meet.”

She added that Biden “is to be commended for his action to ease the student loan burden, which disproportionately harms women and people of color. Energized by our commitment to equity, justice and opportunity, the fight is not over.”