Judging Freedom - Fed judge strikes down Biden Student Loan program

Episode Date: November 11, 2022

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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Friday, February 11th, 2022, Veterans Day. This once was called Armistice Day to reflect the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month when the Great War, which we now call World War I, ended. Then, of course, it was changed to recognize American veterans. Some gave all and never came back. We have our freedoms because of veterans. My father was a veteran of the Navy in World War II. I honor and respect them. Some of them were there voluntarily. Some of them were there because of the draft, which in my opinion is a form of slavery, but they were there. And if you're a veteran, our hat is off to you. So a little after 3.30 here on the rainy, dreary, miserable afternoon on the east coast of the United States with the tail end of

Hurricane Nicole has made its way up into northern New Jersey and southern New England. Last night, a federal judge in Texas invalidated President Joe Biden's program to relieve certain students, former students of their debt. Now we've been through this a couple of times, but I'll give you a brief background. If you get a government-backed loan, the money comes from a bank, doesn't come from the feds, and it goes directly to the college or university that admits you, and that's a credit to you and a debit against whatever you owe that school for your tuition and fees. The federal government guarantees that debt. So if you don't pay it, the federal government is stuck with it.

Joe Biden on his own decided to relieve that debt, that is to say to a large class of students that the first 10,000 of what you owe, you never owe. So either the banks would be stuck with that money or the federal government would have to pay that money. Several states challenged this, several state attorneys general. And a federal judge could just as easily have said, look, this is unconstitutional because under me crazy, which is that you should rule, particularly when you're going to invalidate something that the legislative branch has done. You should rule on the narrowest basis possible. So the widest basis possible here would be this can't be done by the president, can only be done by Congress. The Constitution makes it clear that only the Congress can incur a federal debt. Therefore, only the Congress can relieve a federal debt. Therefore, this is unconstitutional. Therefore, I'm going to invalidate it. Therefore, I'm going

to enjoin the federal government from accepting applications for it. Well, the judge almost did that. Instead, he found a very, very narrow, which is what judges are supposed to do. I'm not critical of this judge. He found a very narrow way to rule against it, which is that when Joe Biden announced this program, he did not follow the Administrative Procedures Act. a federal rule, you don't owe a debt. You have to publish the new rule for 30 days to give both houses of Congress an opportunity to invalidate the rule and to give the public and those affected by the proposed new rule an opportunity to weigh in. Because the White House just announced this without the 30-day waiting period, the federal judge invalidated it. That means that the White House can announce it again. And if they do it properly and wait the 30 days and ignore what people say about it, Congress is not going to invalidate it. Particularly if the Democrats control one House of Congress. Right now, they control both. There's more than 30 days between now and the end of the year. So the

bottom line is he can do this again if he wants, and then it'll be right back before the same judge, which is why if I were the judge, I would not have followed that general rule of ruling on the narrowest basis possible. I would have said this is unconstitutional, whether he followed the Administrative Procedures Act or not, and therefore I'm going to invalidate it. Well, the judge invalidated it, but for the reasons I told you. Now, there are invalidations and there are invalidations. Sometimes a federal judge will invalidate something the president did or Congress has enacted, and the judge will say, all right, I'm going to put it on the shelf for a couple of weeks. I'm going to stay the effect of my own ruling, give you time to go to an appellate court. Well, this judge did not do that. This judge enjoined the executive

branch from enforcing this procedure and enjoined them from accepting any more applications and required them to take the applications they've already accepted and put them on a shelf. He did not stay his own order. So the program is, for all practical purposes, dead unless a federal appellate court intervenes. And I don't think the federal appeals court or Texas, which is the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, it's Texas and Louisiana, and it's headquartered in New Orleans. I don't think the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is going to interfere. I might be wrong. So look, we don't know if this was a political stunt to get young

people who owe this money to vote for the Democrats. If it was, it worked. And this judge didn't invalidate it until after election day. I think Joe Biden was thinking with his heart rather than with his head. His heart would say these poor young people, they deserve a break. His head would say this is federal dollars. Instead of them paying it back, the taxpayers are going to pay it back. And by the way, I'm just the president. I'm not the Congress. I don't have the authority to do this.

I don't know what was going through his head. I only know what he did, which was to establish this program, clearly unconstitutional for two reasons. He didn't establish it properly, didn't give people and members of Congress time to comment on it, and he doesn't have the authority to do it in the first place. So, Your Honor, you probably should have ruled on the constitutional basis first because if he does this all over again and he follows the Administrative Procedures Act, if you're still with me on all this, it's only going to be back before you a second time. More as we get it. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.