BREAKING: Supreme Court strikes down Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan

The court ruled unanimously against the Department of Education in Department of Education v Brown, and 6-3 against the Biden administration in the case of Biden v Nebraska.

The plan would have forgiven $10,000 in federal student loans for borrowers making up to $125,000, and forgiven $20,000 for students who took out Pell Grants.

Delivering the opinion in the case of Biden v Nebraska, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that "Six States sued, arguing that the HEROES Act does not authorize the loan cancellation plan. We agree."

“The Secretary asserts that the HEROES Act grants him the authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan principal,” Roberts wrote, referring to the secretary of education. “It does not."

“We hold today that the Act allows the secretary to ‘waive or modify’ existing statutory provisions,” but, Roberts said, it does not allow the secretary to “rewrite that statute from the ground up.”

The plan was announced in August of last year, with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and Fifth Circuit ruling against the program.

The Biden administration has argued that it has the authority to issue such loan forgiveness under the Heroes Act.

Those against the cases argue that the Biden administration has overstepped its authority, and has violated the separation of powers by going forward with the plan without Congressional approval.

In a lower court ruling, US District Judge Mark Pittman called the forgiveness plan "one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States."

"In this country, we are not ruled by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a phone," Pittman wrote in his decision. "Instead, we are ruled by a Constitution that provides for three distinct and independent branches of government ... The Court is not blind to the current political division in our country. But it is fundamental to the survival of our Republic that the separation of powers as outlined in our Constitution be preserved."

This is a breaking story and will be updated.