Will The U.S. Supreme Court Strike Down Biden's Student Debt Plan?

That's good. Hey, hey! Ho ho! And the burden of student debt is being lifted by President Biden, members of Congress who supported. And it is right. We ask the United States Supreme Court to believe in the certain inalienable rights so we can let an unelected. Body try to take away relief for our families that are struggling every single day in the pandemic. Made it worse for

them. Since the COVID 19 pandemic, student loan borrowers have had a moratorium on their payments. The pause on federal loans has lasted over three years. But now over 40 million Americans may be hit with a bill some borrowers have never even seen. So for years, advocates and borrowers have been pressuring the government to act on student loan forgiveness, saying that the student loan system was broken.

Outstanding student loan debt is marching towards $2 trillion. You have over 1 in 10 borrowers in delinquency or default and a number of other issues with the lending system. Has got to go. Hey, hey, ho, ho, student debt has got to go. President Joe Biden fulfilled his campaign promise in August of 2022 to forgive $10,000 in student loan debt for tens of millions of borrowers. He

upped the relief to 20,000 for borrowers who received a Pell grant in college. So borrowers may be wondering what is going on with President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan since he first rolled out the plan in August. At least six lawsuits have been brought against the plan, mostly by Republicans and conservative backed groups. As those lawsuits made their way through the courts, the Supreme Court

agreed to take on two of the cases and really examine if this was an act of presidential overreach. Another criticism of Biden's sweeping debt relief plan is its impact on an already indebted economy. I've been critical of student loan debt relief for the last two years, but the plan came in, frankly, much worse than I expected. And at this point in our economy, we really don't

need to be adding $500 billion of deficit spending for a purpose that frankly includes wealthy law students and business school graduates getting tens of thousands of dollars. So what the Supreme Court examined at the end of February are two major things. One. Have the plaintiffs here actually proven that they've been harmed by student loan forgiveness in order to challenge a policy in the courts, you need

to prove that a policy has caused you injury. It's called legal standing. Do you have legal standing? The Supreme Court justices considered if the plaintiffs had proven that they will be harmed by student loan forgiveness. The other point that the Supreme Court was considering at the end of February is does the president acting within his rights in forgiving this amount of student debt while the Biden

administration points to the Heroes Act as justification, the plaintiffs say that that law allows for much more tailored relief than the type of sweeping debt cancellation the president is trying to carry out. Borrowers camped outside the Supreme Court the night before the hearings to show their support for Biden's plan. So by the morning, there were hundreds of borrowers outside the Supreme Court. One borrower that I

spoke to said that whether or not his student debt is canceled and whether or not he has a monthly student loan bill will determine whether or not he's able to help his parents who have retired with not enough money be able to afford their groceries and their gas bills. Another borrower told me that student loan debt will determine whether or not she'll be able to ever

save up for a down payment on a house. And the stories do get more severe. There are borrowers who said that the monthly student loan bill, it's either that or their medicine. So going into the Supreme Court arguments, most of the legal experts and professors that I spoke to said that they thought Biden's student loan forgiveness plan would face really tough odds at the Supreme Court

considering the conservative majority. But after the arguments, a lot of them changed their tunes, which was really interesting. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar they said that she made a really convincing case for why the president did have the power to forgive student debt, pointing out that although there's been no precedent for this type of relief, there's also been very little precedent, at least in 100 years, for

this type of public health crisis. That was the coronavirus pandemic. She really made it seem like the plaintiffs had more political issues with the plan than that they could prove that they would actually be harmed by the policy. Experts now believe it will be an uphill battle to convince the six conservative justices to side with the three liberals on the bench. Although the Supreme Court arguments

occurred just over one day. The justices can take months to reach a decision. Experts that I spoke to said that by the end of the term, they should make their ruling. So that'll be sometime in June or July. Companies like SoFi have come out in opposition to the White House plan. If the student loan moratorium ends, there will be a pickup in student loan refinancing, But

we're not counting on it. We have a diverse business. And the thing that gates our growth is how much we invest and where we invest. If that business comes back, we'll allocate resources to it to capture the opportunity and meet our members needs. Borrowers hope the decision happens soon. Since the Biden administration has said payments will resume at the end of August if litigation isn't resolved.

If the Supreme Court strikes down Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, you're going to have tens of millions of Americans who now have to figure out how to make room in their monthly budget for a student loan bill they haven't had to pay in over three years. The Education Department is sounding the alarms that delinquency rates and default rates could skyrocket after borrowers have gotten used to

for Americans to come up with a down payment to buy a house, to save for their retirement, to buy stocks and to start small businesses. So you would see a lot of those impacts likely pick up again once Americans have a new student loan bill due. If the decision is unfavorable for borrowers, there are a few ways to prepare for payments to resume. So what you

can do to prepare is to start saving, put money aside in a savings account so that when those student loan bills resume, it's a little bit less of a shock to you. You have some money saved aside and you're prepared. It's also a good idea for borrowers to get familiarized with their options when payments resume. If you are struggling, there are a number of ways that

you can keep your payments on pause. Those are through forbearances for people who are unemployed or experiencing an economic hardship.