Each passing day brings the country closer to knowing if the Supreme Court will kill President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan and halt relief for the more than 40 million Americans who could have some of their debt erased.
The Court’s decision on the legal challenge to the Biden plan to provide up to $20,000 in one-time loan forgiveness is set to be announced anytime now. Signs point to the conservative majority on the high court ruling against the Biden plan, though the Court does still have the capacity to surprise — see its decision earlier this month upholding a plank of the Voting Rights Act, forcing Alabama to redraw its congressional map ahead of the 2024 election.
But if the Court rejects the Biden administration’s legal case for forgiving debts, that doesn’t necessarily mean the end for student loan relief hopes. Progressive activists and legal scholars have long argued that a separate pathway exists for justifying loan forgiveness, even after an unfavorable Supreme Court ruling. Advocates say the options are there for the Biden administration — if it moves quickly and forcefully.
“We like to say that there’s a Swiss Army knife for canceling student debt — if they’ve taken away the tweezers, use the screwdriver; if someone takes your hammer, use a wrench,” Astra Taylor, a co-founder of the debtors union called the Debt Collective, told Vox. “There’s other ways to do this. Republicans have been terrible, very adversarial, but ultimately the Democrats and President Biden are not as powerless as they like to pretend they are.”
The Biden administration has remained quiet leading up to the Court’s decision, usually telling reporters it is confident that its plan will hold up in court. (The White House declined to comment.)
A possible Plan B for this kind of broad debt relief, meanwhile, isn’t totally new — it’s long been championed by the likes of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Senate Majority Leader…
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