Elizabeth Warren calls for the Supreme Court to reject the 'baseless lawsuits' that blocked Biden's student-loan forgiveness from reaching 'millions of working people in need of relief'
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- Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for the Supreme Court to uphold Biden's student-debt relief.
- It followed the Justice Department filing a defense of the relief to SCOTUS on Wednesday night.
- The Court will hear arguments to the case on February 28.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren isn't relenting on her push to cancel student debt — now urging the nation's highest court to ensure the relief gets to millions of Americans.
On Wednesday night, the Justice Department filed its fulled legal defense of President Joe Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt to the Supreme Court, ahead of oral arguments beginning on February 28. For over two months now, the implementation of the debt relief has been paused due to two conservative-backed lawsuits that sought to permanently block the loan forgiveness, both arguing that Biden does not have the authority to enact broad relief without Congressional approval.
Warren pushed back on those claims.
"The Biden Justice Department has made clear to the U.S. Supreme Court that cancelling student debt is legal under the HEROES Act and critical to millions of working people in need of relief," Warren wrote on Twitter after the legal defense was filed on Wednesday. "Baseless lawsuits from Republican officials should be rejected."
The Justice Department emphasized its confidence in using the HEROES Act of 2003 to cancel student debt, which gives the Education Secretary the ability to waive or modify student-loan balances in connection with a national emergency, like COVID-19. The lawsuits that blocked the relief argued Biden is overstepping his authority using that law, and some Republican lawmakers have said that Biden cannot continue relying on the pandemic as a reason to forgive student loans.
Still, a source familiar with the legal filing told reporters on Wednesday night that even if the pandemic is soon no longer considered a national emergency, the purpose of the relief is to help Americans recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic, which could be long lasting.
While Warren has been a vocal supporter for broad student-debt cancellation in Congress, as a presidential candidate herself she pushed for $50,000 in relief, and she argued the administration could use the Higher Education Act of 1965 — instead of the HEROES Act — to deliver this relief because it would not require reliance on a national emergency.
Biden's administration has not yet commented on what alternative routes, if any, it would pursue if the Supreme Court ends up striking down the relief, noting that its focus right now is the current and ongoing litigation. In a statement Wednesday night, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona noted how he extended the student-loan payment pause as a result of these legal challenges — through 60 days after June 30 or whenever the lawsuits are resolved — but even if the relief is blocked, it looks like payments will still resume this year.
"The Secretary determined, and respondents have not seriously disputed, that ending that pause without providing some additional relief for lower-income borrowers would cause delinquency and default rates to spike above prepandemic levels," the legal filing said to the Supreme Court. "This Court should not compel that damaging and destabilizing result."
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