Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed an amicus brief on Thursday with the United States Supreme Court pushing back on federal education overreach.
Yost claimed that the most recent plan by the United States Secretary of Education to eliminate billions of dollars of student debt “is nothing more than an egregious power grab that tramples all over the separation-of-powers doctrine.”
In the filing, Yost requested that the United States Supreme Court overturn a lower court’s ruling allowing Miguel Cardona, the United States Secretary of Education, to proceed with his debt forgiveness proposal.
“The Biden-Harris Administration will continue to fight to deliver much-needed support to borrowers trying to get back on their feet after the economic crisis caused by the pandemic,” Cardona said.
According to Yost, Cardona’s strategy is to settle class-action lawsuits to accomplish student loan forgiveness instead of using conventional channels of power.
After President Joe Biden’s executive action to cancel student loan debt was unsuccessful, Cardona developed a new plan to forgive billions of dollars in 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, co-signed by 19 other state attorney generals, said neither the secretary of education nor the president has the power from Congress to forgive billions of dollars of student loan debt.
“The executive branch does not have unlimited policy making power, nor an unlimited bank account to forgive student loan debt. The executive branch cannot extend its authority as it sees fit,” Yost said.
The filing supports an appeal in the Everglades College v. Miguel Cardona, Secretary of Education case. In a previous ruling, the Department of Education was granted permission to proceed with the debt-forgiveness plan by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The filing asked the United States Supreme Court to stay the lower court’s decision while this case proceeds on appeal stating that, ultimately, the decision “should be reversed.”
The co-signers on the brief sent Thursday were the attorney generals of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Dave Yost” by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. Background Photo “College Classroom” by Shubham Sharan.
