In a stinging defeat for President Joe Biden, the Supreme Court blocked the administration’s student loan forgiveness plan Friday, rejecting a program aimed at delivering up to $20,000 of relief to millions of borrowers struggling with outstanding debt.
Republican-led states and conservatives challenging the program say it amounts to an unlawful attempt to erase an estimated $430 billion of federal student loan debt under the guise of the pandemic.
“The Court acts as though it is an arbiter of political and policy disputes, rather than of cases and controversies,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote.
House Republicans had included an end to student loan forgiveness in their debt ceiling plan earlier this year but the deal that ultimately passed Congress required Biden to end a pandemic-era pause on student loan payments by the end of this summer.
“The Biden administration has remaining legal routes to provide broad-based student debt cancellation,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“With the pause on student loan payments set to expire in weeks, I call upon the administration to do everything in its power to deliver for millions of working- and middle-class Americans struggling with student loan debt.”.
The President has more tools to cancel student debt — and he must use them. »
