The Supreme Court on Friday blocked the Education Department from canceling up to $ 20,000 per person of student debt in a major defeat for President Joe Biden's agenda as he runs for reelection.
The program has been blocked since October when the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary hold in October.
As expected, the reaction to the ruling on social media was split down party lines, with conservatives saying was consistent with the law while progressives claimed the opposite.
"The Supreme Court accurately concludes via a 6-3 decision that Biden’s administration clearly did not have the authority to transfer billions in student loan debt from those that took it on to taxpayers," The National Review's A.G Hamilton tweeted.
"The same Supreme Court that overturned Roe now refuses to follow the plain language of the law on student loan cancellation. This fight is not over. The President has more tools to cancel student debt — and he must use them," tweeted Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
"So Supreme Court judges can accept hundreds of thousands of dollars in 'gifts,' politicians can take out millions of dollars in PPP loans and have them forgiven, but helping average Americans with their student loans is across the line?" tweeted Saffron Olive.
"By striking down student loan debt, the US is likely to enter an immediate recession this fall when tens of millions of Americans will resume payment of loans in place of their current disposable income," tweeted Eric M. Leiderman.
"Lots of very bad things this 6-3 majority has done, (Dobbs being, imho, the worst), but them deciding you are now $10,000 poorer than you were yesterday is really a helluva thing," tweeted MSNBC host Chris Hayes.
Fox News contributor Guy Benson replied to Hayes' tweet, writing: "Setting aside Dobbs disagreement, POTUS plainly lacked authority on student loans, which he cannot magically disappear for millions, whose loans remain the size they agreed to. And the 'you' here doesn’t include the overwhelming majority of Americans without such loans."
According to Reuters, a White House source says Biden plans to announce a new plan this Friday to protect student loan borrowers in the wake of the ruling.
