LegalReader.com  ·  Legal News, Analysis, & Commentary

News & Politics

8th Circuit Shuts Down Unconstitutional Student Loan Forgiveness Plan


— November 30, 2022

NCLA recently filed a separate lawsuit on behalf of its client, the Cato Institute, urging the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas to stop the student-loan-debt-cancellation plan.


“Under our Constitution, the people’s elected representatives in Congress make public policy, not the President or other members of the executive branch on their own. President Biden’s unilateral decision to cancel one-half-trillion dollars’ worth of student-loan debt without congressional authorization usurps a power the Constitution vests solely in Congress.” ~ Page 1 of complaint filed as Cato Institute v. U.S. Department of Education, et.al.

NCLA commends the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit after it issued an emergency motion for “injunction pending appeal” in a lawsuit brought by six States—Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina—to block the Biden Administration’s unlawful student loan debt cancellation plan. NCLA filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the States.

NCLA released the following statement:

Photo of the Constitution of the United States of America. A feather quill is included in the photo.
“We the People” means all of us. Image by Navyatha123, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0

“The government attempted to perform a fait accompli by unlawfully canceling half-a-trillion dollars of debt owed to the public. The court saw through that ploy and properly halted the unconstitutional program before it could inflict irreversible harm.”

-Sheng Li, Litigation Counsel, NCLA 

NCLA recently filed a separate lawsuit on behalf of its client, the Cato Institute, urging the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas to stop the student-loan-debt-cancellation plan. NCLA’s complaint argues the unilateral plan issued by the U.S. Department of Education to cancel student loan debt is supported by no legitimate claim of statutory authority and effectively strips away a significant competitive advantage to recruit and retain talented borrower-employees from nonprofits, thereby frustrating the primary purpose of the pre-existing Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.

Join the conversation!