Columbus, OH – On Thursday, The Buckeye Institute filed a brand new lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Eastern Division challenging the Biden Administration’s proposed and illegal student loan debt cancellation. The Buckeye Institute, representing plaintiff Amanda Latta, filed Latta v. U.S. Department of Education, calling on the court to determine whether the U.S. secretary of education has the authority to forgive student loan debt without congressional approval.

“Ms. Latta, along with millions of other Americans, is working quite hard to repay her student loans, and—while she would be immensely grateful to participate in a legal, congressionally-passed, constitutionally-sound student loan forgiveness program if one were available, she also fully recognizes that the Biden Administration’s program is likely illegal and therefore unenforceable,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute and an attorney representing Ms. Latta in the case. “This illegal program will subject millions of Americans to the prospect of being held financially liable not only for their original loans, but also for late fees, potentially increased interest rates, and other penalties or collection fees when the federal government recognizes that it, in fact, still has a legal obligation to collect these loans.”

Amanda Latta, an employee of The Buckeye Institute, is a graduate of Waynesburg University, for which she partially paid through the U.S. Department of Education’s Direct Loan Program. With federal student loans totaling more than $20,000, Ms. Latta is eligible for the program as it was outlined by the Biden Administration. However, given the likelihood of the courts finding the scheme to be illegal, under the terms of her promissory note with the Department of Education, Ms. Latta will be contractually liable for the full amount of her debt, plus increased interest rates, default penalties, and collection costs if she accepts this loan forgiveness that is not legal. She is now faced with the Hobson’s choice of (a) accepting the loan forgiveness knowing she will be financially liable if the program is ultimately deemed to be illegal or (b) forgoing the debt forgiveness to which she would be entitled if the Biden plan is found to be legal.

Tryon continued, “If Ms. Latta accepts the Biden Administration’s illegal loan cancellation deal, she will be held in loan purgatory, worried that the federal government might one day change its mind and call in the very loans it once assured had been forgiven.”

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