WASHINGTON – For more than four months tens of millions of Americans have waited for a sign about whether President Joe Biden’s $400 billion student loan forgiveness plan is legal or whether it would be struck down by federal courts as a power grab.
The Supreme Court may finally provide some answers Tuesday, though a decision is not expected until later this year.
Over the course of several hours, the nine justices will hear oral arguments in two cases challenging Biden’s plan. The plaintiffs in both assert that the administration exceeded its authority by attempting to grant debt relief to an estimated 40 million people.
Here’s a look at what’s happening at the Supreme Court.
Clarence Thomas, John Roberts use first questions to question Biden’s power
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas started off the arguments Tuesday questioning under what authority the administration seeks to cancel student loans. The law Biden relied on gives the administration power to “waive or modify” loan provisions.
Is what Biden did a “waiver or a modification,” Thomas pressed. There’s no explicit provision in the law that allows the loans to be “cancelled,” Thomas pointed out.
Chief Justice John Roberts picked up that same argument.
“We’re talking about half a trillion dollars and 43 million Americans,” Roberts said. “How does that fit under the normal definition of modify?”
– John Fritze
Supreme Court arguments underway in Biden student loan forgiveness plan
The Supreme Court’s arguments over President Joe Biden’s student loan program got underway a little after 10:10 a.m. ES.T Representing the Biden administration, and starting off the arguments, is Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar.
Prelogar told the court that without the plan, “defaults and delinquencies will surge.” Congress “expressly authorized” the loan forgiveness during emergencies, she said.
– John Fritze
Ketani Brown Jackson hands down first merits opinion
Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson handed down her first merits opinion Tuesday in a battle between states over who gets the proceeds of abandoned money orders.
Jackson wrote for a unanimous court that as a general matter the proceeds should go to the state where the product was purchased. By tradition, the court tries to assign the least senior justice an opinion that is unanimous.
– John Fritze
Hundreds gather outside Supreme Court for student loan forgiveness debate
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday ahead of the arguments about Biden’s student loan forgiveness program – most of whom appeared to support the plan.
Some carried signs that read “Cancel Student Debt.” Others proclaimed that “Student debt cancellation is illegal.” They chanted phrases throughout, such as “D-E-B-T, student debt is crushing me!” and “Education is a right!”
The turnout appeared to be the largest since the high court held arguments last year in the blockbuster affirmative action cases.
Eliana Reed, 26, said efforts to preserve Biden’s debt relief program are a “no brainer.” That millions of Americans are subject to insurmountable debt they’re unable to pay off with their jobs “feels so obviously wrong,” said Reed, who has about $17,000 in student debt left.
The issue “taps into so many different groups of people.”
– John Fritze and Alia Wong
Supreme Court denied student loan challenges before
Before the Supreme Court scheduled arguments in Tuesday’s student loan cases, it had twice before balked at lawsuits challenging the program.
Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett in November denied a challenge to the loan forgiveness program from a conservative legal group on behalf of two people entitled to “automatic” cancellation of their debt. The plaintiffs claimed that the automatic cancellation would create “excess tax liability under state law.”
A month earlier, the court batted away a lawsuit from a Wisconsin taxpayer group.
The reason there are so many lawsuits is that groups opposed to the program have been attempting to find a plaintiff who has standing – in other words, who can demonstrate they are injured by the effort in a way that allows them to challenge it in federal court.
Whether the current plaintiffs have standing will be a central part of the argument Tuesday as well.
– John Fritze
More:Biden will be playing defense on student loans at the Supreme Court. Here’s why.
Biden: ‘I have your back’ on student loans
Biden addressed the student loan litigation briefly during remarks Monday night.
“My administration is making our case to the Supreme Court, and I’m confident the legal authority to carry out that plan is there,” the president said at a White House ceremony celebrating Black History Month. “I promise you. I have your back.”
– Joey Garrison
Plaintiffs: ‘There is a student loan crisis’
The plaintiffs challenging Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan acknowledge that the current student loan system isn’t working. They just don’t think Biden’s plan will fix it.
“There is a student loan crisis in this country,” Karen Harned, chief legal officer for the Job Creators Network Foundation, said on a call with reporters Monday. “But this crisis cannot and will not be solved by the president creating a $400 billion program behind closed doors without any input from Congress or the American people.”
Questions:Is Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan dead?
Rough ride ahead:Biden will be playing defense on student loans at Supreme Court
The group is representing two borrowers: One who didn’t qualify for forgiveness because her loans are held by a private, commercial entity and another who didn’t qualify for the maximum possible relief because he wasn’t a Pell Grant recipient.
Biden’s proposal would wipe away $20,000 worth of debt for borrowers who also used a Pell Grant to pay tuition. Pell Grants are awarded to students from low-income families. He also wants to erase $10,000 in debt for most other borrowers.
– John Fritze
Plan B on student loan forgiveness? White House won’t say.
With many experts predicting President Joe Biden is in for a rough argument Tuesday over his $400 billion student loan forgiveness plan, a natural question has come up repeatedly in recent days: Is there a Plan B if the administration’s effort is ultimately struck down?
Give points to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for answering the question consistently: “We are very much confident in our legal authority here,” Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday – echoing the answer she gave to the same question Friday. “That’s why our Justice Department has taken it all the way to the Supreme Court.”
Translation: If there is a backup plan, the administration isn’t ready to talk about it. That’s not a surprise, though. A major element of the litigation is whether the administration used the right law to set up the loan forgiveness program. Acknowledging the administration is combing through federal statutes looking for some other way to authorize the program would give ammunition to the plaintiffs on the eve of the arguments.
– John Fritze and Joey Garrison
Justice Thomas wrote of ‘crushing weight’ of student loans
The Supreme Court won’t have far to look if it wants a personal take on the “crushing weight” of student debt that underlies the Biden administration’s college loan forgiveness plan. Associate Justice Clarence Thomas was in his mid-40s and in his third year on the nation’s highest court when he paid off the last of his debt from his time at Yale Law School.
Thomas, the court’s longest-serving justice and staunchest conservative, has been skeptical of other Biden administration initiatives. And when the Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday involving President Joe Biden’s debt relief plan that would wipe away up to $20,000 in outstanding student loans, Thomas is not likely to be a vote in the administration’s favor.
What to know:Everything to know about student loan forgiveness plan
Plan B:Millions of borrowers have had billions in student loan debt erased, and there’s more to come.
But the justices’ own experiences can be relevant to how they approach a case, and alone among them, Thomas has written about the role student loans played in his financial struggles.
A fellow law school student even suggested Thomas declare bankruptcy after graduating “to get out from under the crushing weight of all my student loans,” the justice wrote in his best-selling 2007 memoir, “My Grandfather’s Son.” He rejected the idea.
– Associated Press
What’s in Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan?
Biden proposed wiping away $20,000 worth of debt for borrowers who also used a Pell Grant to pay tuition. Pell Grants are awarded to students from low-income families. The president also wants to erase $10,000 in debt for most other borrowers.
Only borrowers with an income less than $125,000, or $250,000 for married couples, would be able to have any debt forgiven.
About 26 million people applied for relief before lawsuits stopped the entire program in its tracks. And of those, 16 million were approved to have a portion, or depending on their balance, all their debt erased. For now, applications are closed.
– Nirvi Shah and Chris Quintana
Blueprint:Find more about options from savings plans to student loans
