Supreme Court’s Conservative Majority Wary Of Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan

Both cases heard by the Supreme Court on Tuesday argued that the Biden Administration overstepped its authority by offering student loan forgiveness to millions of borrowers: One case was was brought by six GOP-led states that say loan forgiveness could harm a Missouri-based loan servicer, and a separate case was brought forward by two individual borrowers backed by the conservative Job Creators Network.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar—who represented the government—said the Biden Administration is permitted to cancel student debt in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, though Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued “some of the biggest mistakes in the court’s history were deferring to assertions of executive or emergency power.”

Justice John Roberts pushed back on Prelogar’s argument that Biden can cancel loans under the HEROES Act of 2003, which gives the federal government the power to modify student loan programs during national emergencies, suggesting Congress needed to more explicitly give Biden the power to take such a drastic action—a concept known as the “major questions doctrine.”

The court’s remaining liberal justices were more open to the government’s case: Justice Elena Kagan supported Prelogar’s argument justifying relief under the HEROES Act, noting the law contained “very broad language,” while Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested that people who do not receive loan relief “will struggle.”

Sotomayor said arguments made by the Job Creators Network plaintiffs—who suggested the program be shut down because they were not eligible for relief—were “totally illogical,” and continually supported the student loan relief program, noting there are many who “don’t have assets sufficient to bail them out after the pandemic.”

During a hearing for the case brought by six GOP-led states, conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett notably appeared to question whether the states had standing to sue, and asked why the states didn’t “strong-arm” the loan servicer—which is an agency created by the Missouri state government—into suing the federal government instead.