Supreme Court conservatives may want to block student loan forgiveness. But they've hit a snag
Opinion by Harry Litman
Oral arguments before the Supreme Court on Tuesday in a much-watched student loan forgiveness case, Biden vs. Nebraska, pitted two of the conservative majoritys beloved legal doctrines against one another.
The case for striking down President Bidens program, which would forgive about $400 billion in federal student loan obligations, turns on the courts recently minted major questions doctrine. That doctrine, whose legal provenance is questionable and whose contours are still very much being worked out, holds that for major questions of vast economic or political significance, the court requires a clear statement of congressional intent rather than deferring to executive branch interpretations of the law.
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The Biden administration did so under a provision of the pandemic-era Heroes Act authorizing the president to waive or modify any provision of the student loan program in the case of an emergency. The Trump administration used that provision to suspend loan repayment obligations at the height of the COVID contagion. The program at issue took the further step of broad forgiveness to realize Bidens campaign promise to reduce American student debt, which exceeds even our total credit card debt.
But the courts right wing has a dilemma. It became clear during the arguments that perhaps the strongest point in the Biden administrations favor concerns legal standing, another matter close to the conservatives hearts. The court has insisted on strictly policing the constitutional requirement that the federal judiciary may hear only those cases in which the plaintiff has sustained an injury in fact a concrete, particular harm.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/column-supreme-court-conservatives-may-want-to-block-student-loan-forgiveness-but-they-ve-hit-a-snag/ar-AA1844di