Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-535_i3kn.pdf
Page Number: 8

4 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION v. BROWN 

Opinion of the Court 

B 

(or  household 

On  September  27,  2022,  Secretary  of  Education  Miguel 
Cardona,  invoking  authority  under  the  HEROES  Act,  di-
rected the issuance of waivers and modifications that would 
bring  about  the  forgiveness  of  a  substantial  amount  of 
student-loan debt.  In particular, he purported to effect the
discharge of (1) $10,000 of eligible, federally held student-
loan debt for any individual borrower with 2020 or 2021 in-
come  under  $125,000 
income  under 
$250,000), and (2) an additional $10,000 (making a total of 
$20,000) for any such borrower who had ever received a Pell 
Grant.  Pell Grants are Government-funded grants to help 
defray  the  cost  of  postsecondary  education;  eligibility  for 
these grants turns principally on the income of a student’s
family  when  the  student  applies  to  and  is  enrolled  in  the 
relevant educational program (almost always undergradu-
ate study).  See §§1070a(b)(2), 1087mm(a), 1091; see also 34 
CFR  §690.6(c)  (2022)  (limited  eligibility  for  students  in  a
qualifying  “postbaccalaureate  program”).  Secretary  Car-
dona directed that these actions be taken via a publication
in the Federal Register, see App. 262; all agree that he did
not observe the generally applicable negotiated-rulemaking 
or notice-and-comment processes in devising and announc-
ing the Plan.

Notwithstanding  the  Plan’s  scope  and  expense,  not  all 
student-loan borrowers were pleased with it.  Myra Brown 
and Alexander Taylor, plaintiffs in this case, are two such
dissatisfied borrowers, albeit for different reasons.  Brown’s 
loans are “commercially held,” id., at 171, Complaint ¶10,
meaning that her creditor is an entity other than the Fed-
eral Government.  The Plan, however, applies only to bor-
rowers whose loans fall into one or more categories of loans 
“held by the Department.”  87 Fed. Reg. 61513 (2022).  Con-
sequently, Brown is not entitled to any loan forgiveness un-
der the Plan.