A Metairie attorney is suing to overturn the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan, arguing that the federal action violates the Constitution’s separation-of-powers doctrine and represents “an arbitrary and capricious wealth transfer.”
The lawsuit was filed Oct. 27 by the Pelican Institute for Public Policy in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Attorney Tommy Badeaux, the plaintiff, took out extensive student loans as he pursued his education goals but did not qualify for loan forgiveness under Biden’s debt-cancellation proposal, the lawsuit states. The plan would allow for up to $10,000 of student loan forgiveness.
“I brought this lawsuit because the Biden administration violated the Constitution and the law by crafting a half-a-trillion-dollar policy in secret that affects all Americans,” Badeaux told the Louisiana Record in an email. “As a hardworking citizen, I believe my voice should be heard on things that directly affect me and my family.”
He noted that other legal challenges to the student loan policy had been filed in other jurisdictions. Badeaux, however, wanted to bring the issue to “a judicial circuit that has often shown that it cares deeply about standing up for the Constitution and on behalf of all Americans.”
The federal policy also violated the Administrative Procedure Act’s provisions for getting public input about the proposed changes, according to the complaint.
“The Biden administration concocted a massive public debt cancellation in secret that will cost taxpayers like Tommy over half a trillion dollars of additional public debt at a time of soaring deficits and unprecedented inflation – and that did not even consider Tommy,” the lawsuit says.
The plaintiff seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction preventing the federal government from enforcing the public debt cancellation. The administration based its authority to cancel a portion of student debt on a 2003 law designed to help military service members with debts during war or a natural disaster.
“Congress is where this debate should’ve occurred,” James Baehr, special counsel at the Pelican Institute, said in a prepared statement. “But, under pressure from progressive activists, the Biden administration hijacked a good law to produce a terrible policy in a brazen act of executive overreach.”