The Biden administration’s student debt relief program will not resume for now after the 6-3 Republican-appointed Supreme Court refused to lift a hold on the plan and set oral arguments over the legal dispute for February.
Biden, who criticized the high court as “more of an advocacy group” than an even-handed institution in response to its decision overturning Roe v. Wade, asked the justices to lift an appeals court order that blocked his plan to relieve up to $20,000 of debt collected from student borrowers. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration stands by its belief that the program is legal.
“We welcome the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case on our student debt relief plan for middle- and working-class borrowers this February,” she said in a statement Thursday, adding that the program is “supported by careful analysis from administration lawyers.”
SUPREME COURT LEAVES BIDEN’S STUDENT DEBT RELIEF PLAN ON HOLD, SETS ARGUMENTS FOR FEBRUARY
Although the president’s plan has sustained major blows through litigation, some legal experts are still speculating whether the conservative states and groups that challenged the costly plan will ultimately find legal standing — demonstrating to the courts the program caused sufficient harm.
“Despite the clear overreach by the Biden administration, the plaintiffs in both circuits have an uphill climb when it comes to standing — this is the weakest link, and the one most likely to be broken on appeal,” Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare Project, told the Washington Examiner.
The Supreme Court’s decision to set oral arguments came one day after Biden’s plan was kept from resuming for a second time by the predominantly conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which affirmed a federal Texas court’s decision to halt the program while litigation continues.
The program was initially blocked by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in October, responding to six Republican states that argued the relief plan threatened future tax revenues and circumvents congressional authority.
The Texas lawsuit was filed by a conservative group, the Job Creators Network Foundation, in October on behalf of two borrowers who did not qualify for debt relief.
Filitti said that lower courts have viewed Biden’s plan as an executive overreach and the justices could more narrowly seek to determine “who, if anyone, has a right to sue to block Biden’s action.”
“Texas Judge Pittman, when he issued his decision, he never considered the challenge to plaintiffs’ standing — he went directly to the merits of the case. And standing is one of those threshold issues that if you don’t have it, you don’t get to go to the merits of the case. So that is a valid reason to appeal it, and that is why there is a potential to overturn it — it didn’t happen in the circuit court, but it could very well happen at the U.S. Supreme Court,” Filitti added.
Although the administration has yet to appeal the 5th Circuit decision to the Supreme Court, the Biden administration has vowed it will in the coming days.
“We are confident in our legal authority to carry out the student debt relief program and will be taking this fight to the Supreme Court as well,” said White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan.
Filitti added that the administration is essentially arguing the “alleged harm is too speculative, or that the plaintiffs had no legal basis to expect to benefit from the continuation of the student loan program.” So far, two other lawsuits have made it to the high court but were not taken up by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, one its six conservative justices.
Still, two circuit courts agreeing that the program should remain temporarily paused pending appeals is a major blow to the administration, which has asserted that the HEROES Act of 2003 provides broad authority for the Education Department to forgive nearly 26 million borrowers’ student debt.
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Biden announced earlier this month that borrowers will be able to hold off on paying back their remaining loans until June, marking the seventh extension of payments since the Trump administration did so in response to the pandemic.
The program aims to include debt cancellation of up to $20,000 in relief for Pell Grant recipients, while millions of borrowers qualify for $10,000 in relief. Total costs for the program are estimated at roughly $400 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
