It’s time for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide - once and for all - if the United States is a monarchy. Or a constitutional republic.

We should have an answer in June.

Using Covid as an excuse, the executive branch of government usurped all sorts of power not granted to it by Congress for two long years. It wasn’t just the Biden administration, either. It began with Trump who initially instituted an illegal rent moratorium.

That ill-conceived program continued under Biden.

But it’s Joe Biden’s transparent plan to buy the votes of young Americans by “forgiving” up to $20,000 in college debt that is now before the Supreme Court.

Two federal appeals courts halted the misguided loan relief. The Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to lift those orders or hear the case.

(Odd, considering Democrats have been calling the Court “illegitimate” since the Dobbs decision last June.)

So not only did the court agree to take the matter, it fast-tracked the case - a highly unusual move, according to The New York Times - and will hear arguments in February.

The stakes are high.

Essentially, Biden has saddled every American taxpayer with private debts that they didn’t incur. The mere suggestion of student debt relief was assumed to be unconstitutional when Nancy Pelosi declared that the president didn’t have the authority to forgive debts.

The National Review hasn’t forgotten:

In July of 2021, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said President Joe Biden does not have the executive authority to issue “debt forgiveness,” arguing that such action would be illegal and that it has “to be an act of Congress.”

“People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not.  He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress,” Pelosi said July 28 at a press conference.

“The President can’t do it. So that’s not even a discussion. Not everybody realizes that. But the President can only postpone, delay, but not forgive,” she added.

Pelosi later seemed at peace with Biden’s illegal actions. After all, the move increased her chances of keeping the House in Democrat hands. That’s far more important than the U.S. Constitution and the separation of powers.

While college debt is crushing some families the idea of wholesale forgiveness is profoundly unAmerican. Most of us believe in repaying what we borrow. Even if it’s credit card debt at usurious rates or car payments that we can’t afford.

In reality, Biden’s plan isn’t student debt relief at all. It’s a massive student debt transfer. It asks taxpayers - many of whom never went to college or who paid off their own loans  - to help pay the loans of others.

Beyond that, nothing in Biden’s relief program guarantees that a new crop of students won’t be swamped with debt next year. Student loans will still be handed out promiscuously, college tuition will continue to soar and university administrations will grow ever more bloated, driving up the cost of attendance.

Without addressing the root causes of profligate student borrowing, the problem will compound. Like interest.

If student debt relief is allowed to stand, it must become an annual tradition like the White House ceremony that pardons lucky turkeys every Thanksgiving.

This entire scheme is a turkey. Biden knows it’s illegal and when the Court declares it so, he’ll blame Republicans and call for packing the Court.

Hopefully, the U.S. Supreme Court will remind Biden that only Congress can waste $430 billion in tax money to pay off college debts.

Biden is also likely to be reminded that he’s not a king. He’s just a president. Who acted illegally.