LEE KRAMER'S ROOM: With Views

[Susie924]

Supreme Court's conservatives cast doubt on student loan forgiveness program

The Supreme Court’s conservative justices cast doubt on President Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan during oral arguments on Tuesday in the first of two challenges to administration’s the program.

The justices appeared skeptical that Congress gave clear enough authorization for the Biden administration to forgive billions of dollars in student debt. But conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court’s three liberals in questioning whether a group of Republican-led states had legal standing to challenge Biden’s plan.

The administration has tied the plan, which forgives up to $20,000 in relief for qualifying borrowers, to the national emergency established during the pandemic.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the administration, cited the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students, or HEROES, Act, which was passed following the 9/11 terror attacks to aid Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, although it also applies to national emergencies.
The law gives the education secretary authority to “waive or modify” federal student financial assistance programs “as the Secretary deems necessary in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency.”

“We’re talking about half-a-trillion dollars and 43 million Americans. How does that fit under the normal understanding of modify?” asked Chief Justice John Roberts, who repeatedly stressed the large price tag during the argument.

Beyond the merits, the case is likely to turn on whether the plan’s purported financial harm to the Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri (MOHELA), one of the nation’s largest student loan services, gives Missouri standing to bring the challenge.
Barrett and the court’s three liberals probed as to why MOHELA itself did not bring the suit, but Nebraska Solicitor General James Campbell, representing the states, argued the state speaks for the loan servicer.
“Why didn’t you just strong-arm MOHELA,” asked Barrett.

The justices are now hearing a second challenge, Department of Education v. Brown, in which two individual challengers who did not qualify for the full $20,000 in relief will similarly assert that the Biden administration overstepped its authority.
They will also argue that Education Secretary Miguel Cardona was required to provide a notice-and-comment period before implementing the plan, and they did not get their rightful opportunity to express disagreement with which borrowers received the full relief.

Decisions in both cases are expected by late June.

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