Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-506_nmip.pdf
Page Number: 20.0

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

15 

Opinion of the Court 

only in the same sense that “the French Revolution ‘modi-
fied’  the  status  of  the  French  nobility”—it  has  abolished 
them  and  supplanted  them  with  a  new  regime  entirely. 
MCI, 512 U. S., at 228.  Congress opted to make debt for-
giveness available only in a few particular exigent circum-
stances; the power to modify does not permit the Secretary
to  “convert  that  approach  into  its  opposite”  by  creating  a 
new program affecting 43 million Americans and $430 bil-
lion in federal debt.  Descamps v. United States, 570 U. S. 
254, 274 (2013).  Labeling the Secretary’s plan a mere “mod-
ification”  does  not  lessen  its  effect,  which  is  in  essence  to 
allow the Secretary unfettered discretion to cancel student
loans.  It is “highly unlikely that Congress” authorized such
a sweeping loan cancellation program “through such a sub-
tle device as permission to ‘modify.’ ”  MCI, 512 U. S., at 231. 
The  Secretary  responds  that  the  Act  authorizes  him  to 
“waive” legal provisions as well as modify them—and that
this  additional  term  “grant[s]  broader  authority”  than 
would “modify” alone.  But the Secretary’s invocation of the 
waiver power here does not remotely resemble how it has 
been used on prior occasions.  Previously, waiver under the
HEROES Act was straightforward: the Secretary identified
a particular legal requirement and waived it, making com-
pliance no longer necessary.  For instance, on one occasion 
the Secretary waived the requirement that a student pro-
vide a written request for a leave of absence.  See 77 Fed. 
Reg.  59314.  On  another,  he  waived  the  regulatory  provi-
sions  requiring  schools  and  guaranty  agencies  to  attempt 
collection  of  defaulted  loans  for  the  time  period  in  which
students were affected individuals.  See 68 Fed. Reg. 69316.
Here, the Secretary does not identify any provision that
he is actually waiving.4  No specific provision of the Educa-

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4 While the Secretary’s notice published in the Federal Register refers