Highlights of the Student Loan Forgiveness Opinions and Dissent

Justice Amy Coney Barrett

It is obviously true that the Secretary’s loan cancellation program has “vast ‘economic and political significance.’” Utility Air, 573 U. S., at 324. That matters not because agencies are incapable of making highly consequential decisions, but rather because an initiative of this scope, cost, and political salience is not the type that Congress lightly delegates to an agency. And for the reasons given by the Court, the HEROES Act provides no indication that Congress empowered the Secretary to do anything of the sort.