The EPA ruling likely means student loan forgiveness is DOA

[Alhena]

Today's SCOTUS decision basically says agencies, like the Department of Education in the case of student loan debt cancellation, can't do anything really big- those steps are reserved for Congress:

Though Roberts said many “regulatory assertions ha[ve] a colorable textual basis” in federal statutes, agencies are tasked with taking baby steps, not big steps.

“Agencies have only those powers given to them by Congress, and ‘enabling legislation’ is generally not an ‘open book to which the agency [may] add pages and change the plot line,'” Roberts wrote while citing a treatise. “We presume that ‘Congress intends to make major policy decisions itself, not leave those decisions to agencies,'” Roberts continued, this time citing a Brett Kavanaugh missive in a circuit court case when he was an intermediate appellate judge.

https://lawandcrime.com/supreme-court/dissenting-justices-fear-the-eastern-seaboard-being-swallowed-by-the-ocean-as-scotus-limits-epas-ability-to-push-clean-energy-agenda/

This was a 6-3 decision- I see virtually no chance that the Republican majority which wrote this opinion would uphold a decision by the Department of Education to cancel all student loan debt.

[Tetrachloride]

1. i am not one to kick the bucket while the horse is still standing

Defeatism is not a winner

[VMA131Marine]

2. Dept of Ed could do it before it even got to SCOTUS

Once done, it’s not easily undone, no matter what SCOTUS says.

[Alhena]

4. True with some things, but the Dept. of Education saying "you don't owe" can easily

be undone with a "yes you do" ruling.

[VMA131Marine]

6. Not sure about that.

First of all who would even have standing to bring a case. There’s no injured party.
Second, once the slate’s been wiped clean for a borrower, it gets very difficult to reinstate the debt. The attempt itself would spur lawsuits.

[Alhena]

8. I've read that student loan servicers would be the likely plaintiffs

If student loans are cancelled then they will lose the money they would make from collecting on those loans. Seems to meet the "injury in fact" requirement of constitutional standing.

As far as the second question, I expect a court where the case is filed will stay the administrative order pending a district court ruling. Plaintiffs will likely choose a very conservative district in a conservative circuit- a lot of these cases seem to get filed in the Western District of Louisiana/Fifth Circuit.

[TheRealNorth]

11. That's wishful thinking

The objecting party would have the courts issue an injunction

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Illegitimate rulings should be disobeyed

[Alhena]

5. Yeah, I expect Biden to try anyway, no great harm in trying

but a SCOTUS which only thinks federal agencies should be able to take baby steps is going to strike down any blanket forgiveness of student loan debt, likely very quickly.

[W_HAMILTON]

7. Even more reason to do it.

Give those that didn't vote for Hillary Example #156,606 of how the two parties most certainly are NOT the same. Too bad those dumbasses didn't listen to people like myself that told them they were dooming any sort of future progressive policy to failure by their wasted votes and non-votes in 2016.

[Alhena]

9. Yeah, I agree. Just don't get your hopes up on the final result