Jonathan Turley says Biden's student debt forgiveness stood little chance before SCOTUS: 'Bordered on obscene'

Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley joined "America's Newsroom" Friday after the Supreme Court struck down President Biden's student loan relief plan. Turley said the decision is the latest instance where the administration "overreached on their authority," calling it "absurd" for Biden to enact the plan without Congress' approval. 

SUPREME COURT RULINGS LIKELY TO INTENSIFY LEFT'S CALLS TO ‘PACK THE COURT’

JONATHAN TURLEY: This is a huge defeat for the Biden administration, politically and legally. It is only the latest such defeat where the president has overreached on his authority. Previously, the president argued that he could use the CDC as the basis for the eviction moratorium during the pandemic, even though many of us said that he clearly lacked that authority, he went ahead and did it anyway. In fact, he admitted that by the time the courts might strike down his efforts, he could get a lot of money out the door. Well, that's a level of contempt that does not sit well with courts. In this case, you have the Heroes Act, which is just a few pages long, and was clearly designed to help people who are serving abroad in military conflicts so that they didn't have to worry about their college tuition payments. The use of the Heroes Act for this massive loan forgiveness program was absurd, and bordered on the obscene. I mean, it was clear that they could not get this through Congress and that they decided to come up with this novel theory to circumvent Congress. What was really unbelievable to watch is that the Democrats applauded him for that. He essentially made Congress a functional nonentity and half of Congress gave him a standing ovation. 

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Biden administration cannot go forward with its student loan debt handout program.

In a 6-3 decision, the court held that federal law does not allow the Secretary of Education to cancel more than $430 billion in student loan debt.  

"The Secretary’s plan canceled roughly $430 billion of federal student loan balances, completely erasing the debts of 20 million borrowers and lowering the median amount owed by the other 23 million from $29,400 to $13,600," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. "Six States sued, arguing that the HEROES Act does not authorize the loan cancellation plan. We agree."

President Biden strongly disagrees with the court's decision and will make an announcement later today detailing new actions to protect student loan borrowers, a White House source told Fox News Digital.