Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-535_i3kn.pdf
Page Number: 13

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

9 

Opinion of the Court 

cannot adopt the Plan under the HEROES Act regardless
of  the  procedures  it  follows.  Reply  in  No.  4:22–cv–908 
(ND Tex.,  Oct. 20, 2022), ECF Doc. 26, pp. 3–4.  But they
observed that the Department has claimed it also has au-
thority to forgive loans under a different statute, the Higher
Education Act of 1965 (HEA), which authorizes the Secre-
tary  to  “compromise,  waive,  or  release  any  right,  title, 
claim, lien, or demand.”  20 U. S. C. §1082(a)(6).  Thus, re-
spondents argued, there is a chance that vacating the Plan
would prompt the Department to pursue loan relief under 
the HEA instead.  In this Court, Brown and Taylor discuss 
the HEA at length for the first time in this litigation.  See 
Brief for Respondents 28–32.

Having  recounted  this  history,  we  now  understand  re-
spondents’ claim and theory of standing as follows.  First, 
because the HEROES Act does not substantively authorize
the Plan, the Department was obligated to follow the typi-
cal  negotiated-rulemaking  and  notice-and-comment  re-
quirements.  Second, if the Department had observed those 
procedures, respondents might have used those opportuni-
ties to convince the Department (1) that proceeding under 
the HEROES Act is unlawful or otherwise undesirable, and 
(2) that it should adopt a different loan-forgiveness plan un-
der  the  HEA  instead,  one  that  is  more  generous  to  them 
than  the  HEROES  Act  plan  that  they  allege  is  unlawful. 
They  assert  there  is  at  least  a  chance  that  this  series  of
events will come to pass now if we vacate the Plan.  Id., at 
19. 

C 
Describing respondents’ claim illustrates how unusual it 
is.  They  claim  they  are  injured  because  the  Government
has  not  adopted  a  lawful  benefits  program  under  which 
they would qualify for assistance.  But the same could be 
said of anyone who might benefit from a benefits program 
that the Government has not chosen to adopt.  It is difficult