The fate of the Biden administration’s student loan debt forgiveness program will be decided by the cases Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown, which the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in on Tuesday. The plaintiffs in both cases contend that President Joe Biden’s program—a significant pledge made by the president during his 2020 campaign—is a vast abuse of executive power that contradicts congressional purpose.
The court heard back-to-back oral arguments in both instances. The justices concentrated during the arguments on the two issues at the core of each case. If the plaintiffs who are pursuing the lawsuit have standing before the court, that is the first thing to determine. The program’s constitutionality is the subject of the second query.
The question of standing concerns whether the party who brought the lawsuit is authorized to do so. The issue of standing, while more of a theoretical disagreement than the legal merits of Biden’s student-loan forgiveness scheme, could be the focus of the court’s judgment. During today’s oral argument in Biden v. Nebraska on behalf of the US, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar concluded by saying, “The difficulty here is the states aren’t the proper plaintiff to bring this complaint.” Prelogar also rejected the plaintiffs’ standing in that case at the Department of Education v. Brown oral argument. Parties cannot use the legal system to harm both themselves and other parties, the speaker remarked.
The legal merits of the cases turn on the separation of powers between branches of government. In Biden v. Nebraska, James Campbell, arguing on behalf of several states, claimed, “The Secretary is attempting to bypass Congress on one of today’s most debated policy questions, student loan forgiveness. After many failed legislative efforts . . . no [congressional] statute authorizes this sweeping action.” In Department of Education v. Brown, J. Michael Connolly, arguing on behalf of a borrower challenging the program named Myra Brown, asserted, “Congress did not authorize the Secretary [of Education] to create a $400 billion debt forgiveness program behind closed doors with no public involvement.”
A federal court froze the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program in November 2022. However, the Biden administration extended its pause on student loan repayments through June of this year.
