Supreme Court rules against Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness program

While the court ruled unanimously against plaintiffs in the Department of Education v. Brown case, it ultimately ruled 6-3 in favor of the plaintiffs in the Nebraska case, putting a stop to the president’s debt relief program.

The Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness program on Friday, denying significant debt relief for millions of student borrowers.

The Supreme Court’s decision comes nearly a year after President Biden launched the student debt relief program to eliminate upwards of $20,000 in debt for eligible borrowers, as theGrio previously reported.

Biden’s efforts to support borrowers were halted when the Supreme Court granted certiorari to hear two cases, Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown, to determine whether he had the authority to create the student debt relief program.  

While the court ruled unanimously against plaintiffs in the Department of Education v. Brown case, it ultimately ruled 6-3 in favor of the plaintiffs in the Nebraska case. The decision in the Nebraska case was decided across ideological lines.

The conservative justices, led by the written opinion of Chief Justice John Roberts, argued that the HEROES Act that Education Secretary Miguel Cardona relied upon to issue broad debt cancellation does not give him the authority to do so.

The high court concluded: “The HEROES Act allows the Secretary to ‘waive or modify’ existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, but does not allow the Secretary to rewrite that statute to the extent of canceling $430 billion of student loan principal.”

Jonathan Petts, the co-founder of Upsolve, a non-profit organization that aims to assist citizens with their finances, told theGrio that Biden’s program would’ve greatly benefited Black and brown borrowers.

“Many borrowers are struggling to just put food on the table,” he said. “Borrowers took out student loans with an implied promise that they’d be able to get jobs from this debt after college, and that hasn’t happened because of COVID and our economy and the place that it’s in.”

Democratic strategist Ameshia Cross told theGrio that Biden’s program needed to prevail because student debt is crippling a lot of Black borrowers.

“Student loan debt prevents people or helps them to put off things like buying a home, things like buying a car, things like moving out of their parents’ homes,” she said.

“Student loan debt has particularly for women and Black women, saddled them with this absorbing amount of debt that they cannot climb over…[Black women]] in the workplace earn less on average than our white male counterparts,” said Cross.

She added, “Two-thirds of the $1.7 trillion in student loan debt that is held in this country is held by Black women…this is something that is keeping this population back.”

For months leading up to the Supreme Court’s decision, Republicans launched efforts to permanently stop Biden’s student loan debt program from moving forward.

Earlier this month, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told theGrio, he was “shocked” by his conservative colleagues’ conduct towards the student loan debt crisis.  

“House Republicans…do everything possible to subsidize the lifestyles of the wealthiest people in this country and undermine the ability of everyday Americans, including students, to pursue the American dream,” said Jeffries.

He added that Congress will continue to “stand up for middle-class folks, working familes, students, young people and older Americans and the left behind.”

Petts told theGrio that now that the moratorium on student loans is coming to an end in August, matters are only going to worsen for borrowers.

“They just have no ability to make a dent in their student loan debt,” he said.

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