President Joe Biden continues parading around colleges and universities, boasting that he still plans to forgive student loans, after backtracking numerous times. Just last week, though, he vetoed a Republican-led bill that would gut his plan for forgiving $10,000 in student debts.
That means the fate of the plan lies in the lap of the Supreme Court of the United States. South Texas College of Law professor Josh Blackman says this case, however, has some challenging aspects.
"The difficulty with this case is that no one is really injured by the policy...generally, the only way to get into federal court is if you are injured by a policy," he says. "The justices may just dismiss the case outright because no one is actually harmed by it. If no one is...there is no way to challenge it in court. It is a free pass to evade the law."
If it seems like this came to the SCOTUS rapidly, that is because it did.
"It had to get there quickly because a lower court declared it illegal," he says. "Once a lower court declared a national policy illegal...the supreme court has to intervene."
How might this shake out? Blackman says most will be frustrated.
"Even if this is illegal, or against the law...there are no actual injuries," he says. "I think it is not going to work, and the Biden policy will be upheld. That is my prediction."
Of course, student loan payments were put on pause by Trump due to the COVID-19 pandemic three years ago now. That was also a time when he put a couple handpicked Republican Justices on the court.
Will that help any? Nope.
"The judges present from a point that is not always the most conservative, even in these cases," he says. "I think a little buyer's remorse may kick in sooner or later."
As for when a ruling may come down, he says we can expect it at least by June 30th.
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