{"id":15026,"date":"2023-07-04T05:28:58","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T10:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=15026"},"modified":"2023-07-04T05:29:03","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T10:29:03","slug":"supreme-courts-student-loan-decision-usurps-congresss-authority-says-democrat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=15026","title":{"rendered":"Supreme court\u2019s student loan decision \u2018usurps Congress\u2019s authority,\u2019 says Democrat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The US supreme court\u2019s decision to strike down<\/a> Joe Biden\u2019s student debt forgiveness plan late last week \u201cusurped the authority of Congress\u201d, Democratic House representative Ro Khanna said on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khanna, of California, argued that if anyone thought Biden was unduly empowered by the legislation which the president used to issue the debt relief program, \u201cthen the solution is Congress can repeal the \u2026 act\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chief justice John Roberts and his colleagues on the supreme court \u201cshouldn\u2019t be overturning the will of Congress just because they think Congress gave too much power to the president,\u201d Khanna said on Sunday on ABC\u2019s This Week<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show\u2019s host, Jonathan Karl, pushed back on Khanna\u2019s stance. Karl played a clip in which former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi \u2013 Khanna\u2019s fellow California Democrat \u2013 asserted that a president could delay debt repayment but not entirely, single-handedly forgive it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Karl said, the supreme court quoted Pelosi\u2019s words in the decision that doomed the student debt relief program put forth by Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khanna countered<\/a> by saying that, after Pelosi\u2019s remarks, the Biden administration solicited a legal analysis of the 2003 Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (Heroes) Act on which the president based his debt forgiveness program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that analysis, Biden\u2019s staff concluded that the Heroes Act \u2013 which enables the government to provide relief to student borrowers amid a national emergency \u2013 gave the president authority to cancel or amend the loans in question, Khanna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The progressive congressman added that he could understand arguments that the Heroes Act \u2013 which was passed about two years after the September 11 terrorist attacks \u2013 \u201cwas way too broad\u201d. But that argument should be advanced in Congress \u2013 \u201cit is not for unelected justices to override\u201d federal lawmakers who were chosen by voters, Khanna said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what this court is doing,\u201d Khanna continued. \u201cIt\u2019s very dangerous. They are basically reinterpreting congressional statute to fit their ideological preconceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khanna\u2019s remarks came days after he spoke to the Guardian<\/a> about his wish for an extension to an October deadline to resume payments for 40 million students affected by the debt forgiveness program\u2019s defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During that interview, he also said the court\u2019s decision to invalidate Biden\u2019s debt forgiveness program proved the institution was \u201cregressive\u201d and in need of reform. Additionally, he pledged to accelerate efforts to pass a bill which would establish term limits for supreme court justices, who currently enjoy lifetime appointments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three far-right justices on the supreme court \u2013 Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett \u2013 were appointed during Donald Trump\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, the conservative supermajority which Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett help form also struck down affirmative action in college admission as well as a Colorado law that compelled entities to afford same-sex couples equal treatment, all about a year after the court eliminated the federal abortion rights established by the landmark Roe v Wade ruling in 1973.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A poll released on Sunday<\/a> by This Week showed that 52% of Americans believed that supreme court justices ruled \u201cmainly on the basis of their partisan political view rather than on the basis of the law\u201d. That marked a significant increase from January 2022, when only 38% felt that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the poll did show that a majority \u2013 52% \u2013 of Americans approved of the decision ending affirmative action<\/a> in colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khanna said in the short term he would support Biden\u2019s recently announced efforts to implement a new student debt relief plan through the Higher Education Act. That law was unaffected by the supreme court\u2019s ruling involving the Heroes Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khanna also called on the president to block student loan interest from accruing beginning in the fall as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have all of these students who have relied on a promise that they are going to have their student loans forgiven,\u201d Khanna said on This Week. \u201cThis is a real hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khanna made clear that past personal experience partly explained his efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had to take out $150,000 of student loans,\u201d Khanna said. \u201cI\u2019m fortunate now and been able to pay them off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theguardian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US supreme court\u2019s decision to strike down Joe Biden\u2019s student debt forgiveness plan late last week \u201cusurped the authority of Congress\u201d, Democratic House representative Ro Khanna said on Sunday. Khanna, of California, argued that if anyone thought Biden was unduly empowered by the legislation which the president used to issue the debt relief program, \u201cthen the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[1169,1236,9447,6217,4174],"class_list":["post-15026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-biden","tag-democrats","tag-student-debt-relief","tag-student-loans","tag-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15026"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15028,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15026\/revisions\/15028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}