Kansas AG sues to block Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is leading a group of 11 states in filing a lawsuit against President Biden's latest attempt at student loan forgiveness on Thursday.
Kansas was among the six states who successfully challenged Biden's original student loan forgiveness program last year. Kobach says this latest program flies in the face of the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling and breaks many of the same rules.
"Not since the civil war has a president told the Supreme Court, ‘Yeah you blocked me, but I’m gonna do it anyway.’" Kobach told Fox News Digital in an interview. "Biden is trying to twist federal law once again, and his new plan is just as illegal as the old plan."
The states joining Kansas in the lawsuit are Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.
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"A coalition of States sues Defendant Biden, as well as co-defendants the
Department of Education and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, to stop a second attempt to avoid Congress and pass an illegal student debt forgiveness. Last time Defendants tried this the Supreme Court said that this action was illegal. Nothing since then has changed," the lawsuit reads.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Biden announced his new $138 billion student loan plan in February, somewhat smaller than the $430 billion program from 2023.
"The Supreme Court blocked it, but that didn’t stop me," Biden boasted at the time.
Kobach says Biden's program seeks to reduce monthly loan payments to near zero by adjusting the terms of loan repayment, rather than forgiving the loans outright. The effect of the move is the same, however, and transfers mountains of debt onto American taxpayers.
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The Kansas lawsuit further argues that Biden's move violates the Supreme Court's "major questions doctrine," in which Congress is presumed to retain authority to assign major policy decisions to an agency.
Kobach argues that forgiving $138 billion in student loan debt – a number he says has grown since Biden's announcement – is certainly a major policy decision falling under the purview of Congress.
Kobach went on to argue that the loan forgiveness program is simply bad policy, saying it shifts debt from some of America's most wealthy, upper class citizens onto all American taxpayers.
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"As a parent scraping to set aside money to help my own children get through college without taking on student loans, I feel the unfairness directly," Kobach wrote in a February op-ed for the Washington Free Beacon.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey also announced plans challenge the student loan program on Thursday, saying he had amassed a similar coalition of states that would be filing in the coming days.
"Between our two coalitions of states, we will get this matter in front of a judge even more quickly to deliver a win for the American people. The Supreme Court sided with Missouri on this matter the first time. I look forward to bringing home yet another win for the Constitution and the rule of law," Bailey said in a statement.
Biden reaffirmed his commitment to the student loan push in a Tuesday statement on social media.
"From day one, I promised to fix broken student loan programs and make sure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity. I’m not backing down," Biden wrote.
Read the full Kansas lawsuit below. App users: click here.