Conservative Supreme Court justices expressed doubt during oral arguments Tuesday that the Biden administration had the legal ability to bypass Congress to provide billions in student loan forgiveness.
Chief Justice John Roberts poked holes through the legal premise of the Biden administration’s legal argument – namely, to cancel a portion of federal student loan debt without asking Congress due to the HEROES Act.
‘We take very seriously the idea of separation of powers and that power should be divided to prevent its abuse,’ Roberts said.
The case is a culmination of legal challenges, including from six Republican-led states, arguing that Biden overstepped his executive authority to forgive $400 billion in student loans.
Protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday as justices heard arguments in the case on trying to stop President Joe Biden from implementing his student loan forgiveness plan
Conservatives on the 6-3 conservative-majority Supreme Court appeared to question Biden bypassing Congress is announcing the plan in August. The case is a culmination of several legal challenges, including from six Republican states, claiming the order was an overreach
Roberts noted a 2020 case where the Supreme Court – in a 5-4 vote – blocked former President Donald Trump from being able to unilaterally dismantle the Obama-era DREAMers program without going through Congress first.
Nebraska’s Solicitor General Jim Campbell argued: ‘Congress still has a voice in emergencies, and we saw that in the CARES Act.’
‘Congress used its voice,’ liberal Justice Elena Kagan shot back at the plaintiff. ‘Congress used its voice in enacting this piece of legislation [HEROES Act].’
‘I mean, we worry about executive power when Congress hasn’t authorized the use of executive power,’ Kagan continued. ‘Here Congress has authorized the use of executive power in an emergency situation.’
Campbell said that the ‘connection to the national emergency has become even more tenuous’ in recent months now that the official declaration is coming to an end and the coronavirus pandemic is ‘over.’
Following a series of legal challenges, the nine justices convened to hear arguments for Biden’s plan to eliminate thousands in federal student loan debt for most borrowers, which would fall on U.S. taxpayers – even those who never took out loans.
The plan, which Biden announced in August, would forgive $10,000 in student loans for individuals making less than $125,000 and married couples making less than $250,000 jointly. That forgiveness would go up to $20,000 if the borrower received a Pell grant, which aids students from low-income families.
Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas argued that the order from Education Secretary Miguel Cardona directed by President Joe Biden, ‘runs into Congress’ appropriations authority.’
But Prelogar said there needs to be a focus on the HEROES Act being used because if it weren’t for the national health emergency with COVID, this action would not have been taken.
Thomas questioned if the administration would rely on Congress usually if it didn’t use the HEROES Act, to which Prelogar said ‘Yes,’ and outside this legal provision, they would not argue that the secretary could grant $400 billion in relief to student loan borrowers.
‘Congress wanted to cover the waterfront and the secretary had the tools needed,’ the solicitor general said.
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor acknowledged the states’ argument that they would lose money and could be harmed if the federal relief program was implemented.
She also questioned whether the nearly half a trillion dollars in relief funds should bring the ‘major question doctrine’ into the mix. The doctrine is an administrative law theory that adds an extra hurdle on issues of ‘major economic and political significance.’
But Prelogar argues it doesn’t because it’s a benefits program, not an appropriations program.
While questioning the Nebraska Solicitor General, the Bronx-born Justice Sotomayor said, ‘it is clear – millions [of students] will default, and millions will suffer, unlike the rest of the population.’
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a rally for student debt relief advocates outside the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, as the court hears arguments over President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan.
Student loan borrowers and advocates gather outside the Supreme Court while the justices hear arguments for and against Biden’s plan to cancel student loan debt
Representative Maxwell Frost (D-Florida), 25, is the youngest member of Congress and joins borrowers protesting student loan debt outside the Supreme Court.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-OH) speaks at a protest in front of the Supreme Court during a rally for student debt cancellation in Washington, DC, on February 28, 2023
The case that will decide the fate of President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, which would forigve $400 billion in student loans for millions of borrowers. Pictured: Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona speak about their relief plan at a White House event on October 17, 2022
Prelogar argued the ‘but for’ causation, claiming that the administration correctly used the HEROES Act to forgive student loans because the relief wouldn’t have been needed if it weren’t for the COVID emergency.
‘This is not a situation where the secretary is working outside the heartland of his authority,’ Prelogar said. ‘The secretary is working within the core of his expertise and his authority.’
The final step in President Joe Biden’s efforts to partially forgive federal student loans for most borrowers began as the Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday.
‘Today, my Administration argues our case for student debt relief in the Supreme Court,’ tweeted President Biden ahead of the arguments. ‘This relief is critical to over 40 million Americans as they recover from the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. We’re confident it’s legal.’
A ruling from the Supreme Court puts more on the line than student loans. If the nation’s highest court decides that Biden’s executive action is unconstitutional, it could give more power to states’ legal challenges against federal policymaking.
Republicans immediately denounced Biden’s order announced in August as unfair to those who didn’t go to college and would need to help pay through taxes for the forgiveness plan – or to those who have already paid off their loans or never took out loans.
On the other hand, some activists said that the plan didn’t go far enough, claiming that all student loan debt should be wiped clean.
Six Republican-led states challenged President Biden’s proposal, claiming that the administrative process needed to go through a proper comment and response period and also claims that it was an overreach.
The 6-3 conservative majority will give the final say on the matter after it worked its way up through the court system.
Biden’s legal basis for trying to cancel a portion of student debt is a 2003 law known as the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, better known as the HEROES Act.
Implemented after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack, the law was intended to keep service members from being worse off financially while deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Now extended, the law allows Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to grant relief in times of national emergency – in this case, COVID-19.
The White House argues that ending the national emergency doesn’t change its legal standing for canceling student loan debt because COVID-19 affected millions of borrowers who might have fallen behind on their loans during the pandemic.
‘Can Biden tell the country the pandemic is over, and then you guys argue before the justices today this is a current, ongoing national crisis?’ CNN’s Poppy Harlow asked Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Tuesday morning.
‘Yes, we can,’ he replied.
‘The economic impact of the pandemic is still real,’ he said while concurrently insisting the pandemic is over. ‘We’re trying to help people get back on their feet.’
Students and advocates rally outside the White House as Biden’s student debt cancellation plan is being challenged in the nation’s highest court.
Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) speaks as student loan borrowers and advocates gather in front of the Supreme Court which will hear arguments to cancel portions of federal loan student debt.
According to their legal brief, the states argue that the proposal seeks ‘breathtaking and transformative power’ by relying on ‘a tenuous and pretextual connection to a national emergency.
Student loan borrowers have been thrown into a year of uncertainty.
Biden’s announcement for forgiveness in August also came with him declaring the last extension of student loan deferment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that people would need to resume regular payments on January 1, 2023.
The president, however, decided to extend the moratorium until the summer, when the Supreme Court’s term typically ends, and an opinion must be issued on the case.
Since the program launched, 26 million borrowers have applied for the relief despite its limbo status.
The White House continues to insist that its approach is legally sound.
The administration’s legal filing to the Supreme Court notes that Biden’s directives to Secretary Cardona ‘fall comfortably within the plain text of the act.’
The six states suing are Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina.
The argument: the states would be financially harmed if the federal government goes forward with canceling billions in student loan debt.
Besides the forgiveness, those in education worry that it will be difficult for people to resume these payments after years of debt suspension.
DOE Federal Student Aid chief operating officer Richard Cordray said it would be a ‘psychological hurdle.’
While speaking at a conference in September 2021, he said: ‘We can expect that many, many borrowers will not be eager to return to repayment when they have been led to believe, or even to hope, that was never going to happen.’
Of the 45 million student loan borrowers in the U.S., the White House estimates that nearly 90 percent would qualify for some relief. It also notes that 18 million would likely have their debts fully forgiven.
Supporters of student loan debt relief rally in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday as the justices hear oral arguments in two cases involving President Joe Biden’s bid to reinstate his plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt
Activists and students protest in front of the Supreme Court during a rally for student debt cancellation in Washington, DC, on February 28, 2023.
