Student Loans, Major Questions, and the Dean Wormer Theory of Administrative Law

Abstract

President Biden has announced a plan to cancel up to $20,000 of student loan debt for about 42 million borrowers. This raises a host of questions: Is this a free lunch, or is someone harmed? If someone is harmed, do they have standing to sue? If someone with standing sues, will Biden’s plan be set aside as unlawful? How do the major questions doctrine of West Virginia v. EPA and the pretext concerns of Department of Commerce v. New York bear on that question? What about Alabama Association of Realtors v. DHHS and NFIB v. OSHA? And finally, why did Biden choose Dean Vernon Wormer as his administrative law guru? We can only speculate as to that last question, but we can and do answer all the others.

Keywords: student loans, major questions, administrative law, West Virginia v. EPA, standing