The US Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments challenging President Joe Biden’s plan to erase nearly $400 billion in student loans, with all eyes on how far the conservative-dominated bench will go to override the Democratic leader. ready to go.
The court’s decision, expected before June 30, will determine whether millions of Americans will see up to $20,000 in debt disappear, but could also have implications for future presidential actions.
About 200 protesters gathered outside the courthouse carrying signs supporting Biden’s policy.
Lamar Brooks, 22, an African American student from Baltimore, said he already had $18,000 in debt and was expecting the amount to grow as he hoped to study to become a psychiatrist.
“I can benefit, and it will help other minorities as well,” she told AFP, adding that student loans were a “generational financial burden”.
Relying on legal justifications related to Covid, Biden announced his student loan forgiveness plan last August, shortly before the crucial midterm elections.
“This relief is critical for more than 40 million Americans as they recover from the economic hardship caused by the pandemic,” he tweeted early Tuesday.
“We believe it is legal. And we are fighting for it in court.”
Republican-led states were quick to claim it had overstepped its authority, and an appeals court blocked the measure in November.
Under the relief plan, $10,000 will be deducted from all loans for people making less than $125,000 a year. The relief would be $20,000 for students attending university with need-based government aid known as Pell grants.
In addition to a coalition of Republican states, two students have also filed suit arguing that they were improperly excluded from the program.
During his 2020 campaign, Biden pledged to end the massive amount of debt placed on American students to attend higher education — the White House says some 43 million Americans hold $1.6 trillion in federal student debt.
wide range of results
Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, then-President Donald Trump ordered a freeze on all federal student loan repayments, citing a 2003 law allowing such actions during a “national emergency”.
That pause has been renewed repeatedly since then, and is currently set to expire in mid-2023.
The Biden administration argues that the same law “allows for blanket loan cancellations in response to a once-in-a-century pandemic that has disrupted the nation’s economy and borrowers’ ability to repay their loans.”
Conservatives claim Biden has used the pandemic as an elaborate excuse to bypass Congress.
That argument could prevail in the Supreme Court, which has already moved to overturn several Covid-related policies issued by Democratic administrations, including vaccine mandates and eviction bans.
Biden’s Justice Department argues that the Republican states have no legal standing to bring the case because they “suffered no cognizable injuries,” and that the two students’ challenge is overly broad.
For their part, Republicans are hoping the panel’s 6-3 conservative majority will issue a sweeping decision to limit the president’s authority, saying the US Constitution requires explicit authorization from Congress on such important issues. Is.
The court used this “leading question doctrine” last June to limit the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency in its fight against global warming.
If the court further upholds the doctrine, the Biden administration could find itself unable to act on critical issues at a time when Congress itself is paralyzed by partisan divisions.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)