Pacific Legal Foundation asks Supreme Court to halt unlawful student debt cancellation

Washington, DC; November 1, 2022: Today, Pacific Legal Foundation filed an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to enjoin the Biden administration’s student debt cancellation program until litigation over the legality of the program is settled.

“The administration is attempting to erase half a trillion dollars in debt without any legal basis,” said Caleb Kruckenberg, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “The Court ought to put the brakes on this lawless action while it’s considered by the courts.”

With debt cancellation set to begin any day, the Department of Education has yet to issue any formal rules, guidance, or other legally binding explanation of how the program will function. Instead, it has relied on ever-evolving press releases and webpages which the Department of Education has changed on the fly to avoid legal challenge.

“At no point has the government made a plausible argument that the underlying policy is legal,” said Michael Poon, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “The administration’s ‘lawmaking by press release’ is clearly unconstitutional.”

The Court must not allow the administration to skirt judicial review. If this program is permitted to go into effect without scrutiny from the courts, it will invite similar mischief from future administrations on myriad other issues.

The case is Garrison v. U.S. Department of Education.