Summary

No. The JCN/Bernie Marcus lawsuit (Dept. of Education v. Brown) actually LOST — SCOTUS ruled unanimously the plaintiffs lacked standing and dismissed it. The plan was struck down by the separate Biden v. Nebraska case brought by 6 GOP states, which won standing via Missouri's MOHELA loan servicer. JCN funded a case, but not the one that succeeded.

Responding to @jonathanwarden.com's reply to @midatlantica.com's post.

Research Analysis

Now I have the key facts needed to answer definitively.

Answer

Did the Job Creators Network Foundation (JCN) lawsuit actually kill Biden's student debt plan? No — that specific lawsuit lost. The lawsuit referenced in the thread (funded by Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, with Best Buy's former CEO Brad Anderson also an active JCN member) was Department of Education v. Brown. The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed it for lack of standing, meaning it did not cause the plan's downfall. It was a separate case, Biden v. Nebraska, brought by six Republican-led states, that actually succeeded and struck down the program.

Background and methodology

I researched the two companion Supreme Court cases decided the same day (June 30, 2023) that dealt with Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, using contemporaneous reporting (Texas Tribune, Fortune, CBS, Washington Post, CNN), the Supreme Court's own opinions (via Cornell LII, Justia, Ballotpedia, and the official SCOTUS PDF), and coverage of JCN's funding.

Two separate lawsuits — only one succeeded

There were two distinct Supreme Court cases decided together:

1. Biden v. Nebraska — brought by six Republican-led states (Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina). The Supreme Court found Missouri had standing because the forgiveness plan would have cost a nonprofit student loan servicer the state created, MOHELA, $44 million annually in fees, and the Court held that a state does not lose its ability to sue just because it acted through a public corporation it created and controls.[1] This is the case that actually struck down the plan.
2. Department of Education v. Brown — this was filed by the Job Creators Network Foundation on behalf of two Texas students who argued the program was illegal because it didn't allow for a public comment period.[1] This is "this lawsuit" referenced in the Bluesky thread, and the one whose funders (Marcus and Best Buy's ex-CEO) are named.

Crucially, the Supreme Court held that because the Brown respondents failed to establish that any injury they suffered from not having their loans forgiven was fairly traceable to the Plan, they lacked Article III standing, so the Court did not resolve their procedural claim.[2] The Supreme Court held that the borrowers lacked Article III standing, having failed to establish that any injury they suffer from not having their loans forgiven is fairly traceable to the Plan.[3] The ruling was unanimous — the court vacated and remanded the judgment, holding that because Myra Brown and Alexander Taylor did not prove that any injury they suffer from not having their loans forgiven is fairly traceable to Biden's plan, they lacked Article III standing.[4]

In plain terms: JCN's plaintiffs argued the plan wasn't generous enough to them personally (they wanted more debt cancelled under a different, broader law), and the Court said that theory didn't give them a legal right to sue at all — so their case was thrown out on a technicality, not decided on the merits. As one legal commentary summarized, Myra Brown and Alexander Taylor argued not that the Biden program went too far, but that it wasn't generous enough — not a bad showing for litigants whose case was unanimously dismissed by the Supreme Court.[5]

Funding claims check out

The funding claim in the ancestor post is accurate. The Job Creators Network Foundation is a conservative advocacy group bankrolled by Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus.[1] The group also boasts active members like Brad Anderson, former CEO of Best Buy.[6]

Bottom line on "did this lawsuit actually kill the plan?"

No. The JCN-backed Brown case was dismissed for lack of standing and never reached the merits. The plan was actually killed by the states' case, Biden v. Nebraska. So while JCN's donors (Marcus, and Best Buy's former CEO as a JCN member) genuinely opposed and funded litigation against the plan, their specific lawsuit was not the one that succeeded in killing it — a different plaintiff group (the states) won on different legal grounds (state standing via MOHELA, not individual injury).

Note on other claims in the thread

The original post also makes claims about $40 billion spent on a "war in Iran" and the Strait of Hormuz remaining closed, and a $23 billion student loan figure. These were not part of the specific question asked ("Did this lawsuit actually kill the student debt plan?"), so they were not the focus of this research, though they may warrant separate verification if asked.

Sources

1. U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Biden student loan forgiveness plan
2. Department of Education v. Brown | Supreme Court | US Law | LII / Legal Informa…
3. Department of Education v. Brown | 600 U.S. ___ (2023) | Justia U.S. Supreme Co…
4. Department of Education v. Brown - Ballotpedia
5. The Irony of Department of Education v. Brown - the Other Student Loan Forgiven…
6. Meet the billionaire who canceled student loan forgiveness – People's World

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