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The Supreme Court hears oral arguments Tuesday in two cases to determine whether President Joe Biden can lean on a 2003 law to fulfill a campaign promise and forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for millions of borrowers nationwide.
The justices are set to decide not only if the Biden administration has the power to implement a program that could cost the government more than $400 billion, but also whether the courts should even allow the lawsuits to challenge the program filed by a group of Republican-led states and a group of frustrated borrowers who don’t qualify.
Biden’s program faces a conservative Supreme Court that has been skeptical when agencies appear to overstep the powers Congress gave them, legal experts say. In this case, the Biden administration says Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona can alter student loan terms in emergency situations.
Daniel Urman, a law and public policy professor at Northeastern University, said several conservative members of the court have expressed a general desire to roll back the government’s administrative power.
To move forward with the program, Urman said the Biden administration would have to convince at least two of the six justices on the conservative wing of the court, along with all three of the justices on the liberal wing.
“I could see these cases going in a lot of ways, but I think it is uphill for the Biden administration,” Urman said. “Now uphill doesn’t mean impossible, but I think it is uphill.”
Support for the program largely cuts along party lines, and Congress did not explicitly act on Biden’s call for student loan debt relief. Republican lawmakers filed briefs that urge the Supreme Court to stop the Biden program, and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and other Democratic lawmakers plan to join a rally outside the court to support it.
The justices are expected to issue opinions by the conclusion of the term at the end of June. In the meantime, the Biden administration has paused federal student loan payments for all borrowers, as they have since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
