As Predicted, “Right Wing Opposition to Student Loan Relief”

This just popped up (October 19, 2022) at Scotus Blog. Just as expected the right filed to block student loan relief. Initially filing at the 7th District COA and another filing to SCOTUS just in case they lose at the 7th District. Apparently, they feel it is unfair students get any relief to loans which if they were car loans, etc., they could receive bankruptcy relief. In effect, denial of bankruptcy for these types of loans discriminates against one class of citizen.

Federalist Society member Richard M. Esenberg, founder and current President and General Counsel of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, and Daniel P. Lenningto filed October 19, 2022 with SCOTUS.

Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty Inc. is requesting on behalf of the Brown County Taxpayers Association “that this Court (SCOTUS) issue an injunction pending appeal enjoining Respondents from implementing the Plan, and if the Seventh Circuit affirms the district court’s order, pending the filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari and any further proceedings in this Court.”

“20221019122243877_2022-10-19 PDFa BCTA Application for Writ of Injunction.pdf,” (supremecourt.gov)

Of course, the purpose of the filing is to block student loan relief. As their argument goes:

As soon as Sunday, October 23, 2022,1 the Biden Administration will start automatically cancelling student-loan debts owed by tens of millions of borrowers. The blow to the United States Treasury and taxpayers will be staggering—perhaps costing more than one trillion dollars. If this program goes forward as planned on Sunday, then the President will unilaterally spend roughly 4% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

There is no legal justification for this presidential usurpation of the constitutional spending power, which is reserved exclusively for Congress. This step, which is certainly a major question under cases such as West Virginia v. EPA, 142 S. Ct. 2587, 2609 (2022), is predicated on a law passed under different circumstances to accomplish different purposes for different beneficiaries. The President has transformed a law designed to benefit military personnel and first responders who have been disadvantaged by their response to a discrete national emergency into a warrant to transfer hundreds of billions, or perhaps over a trillion, dollars in debt onto taxpayers. But these student-loan borrowers have not been disadvantaged by their service to the country, or for that matter, anything at all. To the contrary, the President contends this authority exists because, in his sole judgment, and notwithstanding that the need to make loan payments has long been suspended, the COVID-19 pandemic may have made repayment more difficult for some (but not all) recipients of his largesse.

The document was sent to; “The Honorable Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice, Circuit Justice for the Seventh Circuit. More to follow as I find it.

Who got rich off the student loan debt crisis?,” Angry Bear