(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Leading a coalition of 20 states, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost today filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that the U.S. Secretary of Education’s most recent plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt is nothing more than an egregious power grab that tramples all over the separation-of-powers doctrine.
“The executive branch does not have unlimited policymaking power, nor an unlimited bank account to forgive student loan debt,” Yost said. “The executive branch cannot extend its authority as it sees fit.”
The filing asks the U.S. Supreme Court to stay a lower court’s decision to allow Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to move ahead with the debt-forgiveness plan.
Rather than implementing student loan forgiveness through traditional lines of authority, Cardona’s plan is to achieve the same results through the settlement of class-action lawsuits.
The filing argues that the Secretary of Education – like the President – does not have the power from Congress to forgive billions of dollars of student loan debt.
Following the failure of cancellation of student loan debt by executive action, the Secretary of Education created a new plan for canceling billions of dollars of loans for three groups of borrowers:
- Borrowers who accrued debt by attending 151 schools will have their debt forgiven automatically and will also receive a refund of amounts they already repaid
- A second group of approximately 68,000 borrowers may seek review of their federally held debt
- A third group of approximately 206,000 borrowers from 4,000 schools may seek forgiveness through yet another process
The filing supports an appeal in the case of
Everglades College v. Miguel Cardona, Secretary of Education. The U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California previously ruled that the Department of Education could move ahead with the debt-forgiveness plan.
Joining Yost in the amicus brief were the attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
A copy of the filing is available on the
attorney general’s website.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Steve Irwin: 614-728-5417
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