There’s $1.78 trillion in outstanding student loan debt right now, and unfortunately, paying down loans is a rite of passage that tens of millions of Americans have to go through. Spending years or even decades in repayment has made many of those college graduates regretful at the financial decisions they made early in life, particularly when their hopes and dreams for a prosperous career haven’t panned out.
It’s in that context that the Biden administration announced nearly a year ago that it planned to roll out a massive student loan forgiveness plan. The move would have completely eliminated outstanding student loans for millions of borrowers, and it would have made a big dent in the balances that others had remaining on their debt. With that plan having drawn lawsuits from opponents that are currently under review by the Supreme Court, many commentators are pessimistic about the prospects for student loan forgiveness in its current form. Nevertheless, there are several ways that borrowers could end up in a best-case scenario — and they’re not all reliant on a favorable decision from the nation’s highest court. Here are a few of them.
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1. The Supreme Court could support the Biden plan
Few people expect the Supreme Court to rule in favor of the Biden administration on the current lawsuits against the student loan forgiveness plan. The questioning from several justices on the Supreme Court strongly implied a belief that the executive branch had gone beyond its authority under the U.S. Constitution, instead suggesting that more specific authorization from the legislative branch was necessary.
Yet procedurally, there were several arguments supporting the administration’s position that members of the Supreme Court highlighted. Whenever a law benefits someone, others might get left out, but that doesn’t mean that those others have legal standing to challenge the law. One suit before the Supreme Court involves that exact question, as one individual plaintiff got no relief because the Biden plan’s $10,000 forgiveness applies only to federal loans. Another plaintiff complained that others who received Pell Grants would get a larger $20,000 forgiveness amount. Similarly, state governments cited only indirect financial harm from the Biden plan.
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Biden administration based on standing, it might invite further lawsuits from others more directly affected. Yet if the ruling lifted injunctions that are preventing the Department of Education from executing plans to forgive debt, then millions of people who have already applied could finally get the relief they’ve sought for years.
