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- The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision in June on Biden's student-debt relief plan.
- AOC wrote on Instagram that even if it strikes down the current plan, there could be another way.
- It depends on the grounds of the ruling and if the court leaves room for an alternate route, AOC said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said there could still be hope for student-loan forgiveness, even if the Supreme Court strikes President Joe Biden's debt relief plan.
In just over a month, the nation's highest court could issue a decision on whether Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers is legal, or if it was an overreach of the Education Secretary's authority. After Biden announced the relief in August, two conservative-backed lawsuits paused the implementation of the plan in November, and the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the cases in February.
A final decision on the legality of the relief is expected in June, and millions of student-loan borrowers are waiting to learn whether they will resume payments this year with or without relief. Ocasio-Cortez said an adverse ruling might not be the end of the road for borrowers — it all depends on what the justices specify in their decision.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
"There are to major parts to this question: 1. How the court will rule on student loan forgiveness 2. The grounds/rationale for the ruling," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on her Instagram story on Sunday in response to a question on the topic.
"What happens next on student loans depends on both. If the court rules that the program as-is is legal, the program will proceed as designed and Biden admin may just change some deadlines since applications were frozen (that'd be up to them)," she wrote.
"If the court rules against Biden's loan program, I STILL don't think all is lost," she continued. "It depends on the grounds of the court's ruling. The worst case scenario is SCOTUS tossing out all authority to do anything on it. But that would be dangerous for the court's legitimacy and rulings are usually more nuanced than that. If they point out some aspect of the program they they take issue with, it's possible that gives us something to work with."
As Insider previously reported, the conservative justices — as expected — took a skeptical line of questioning when it came to Biden's authority to cancel student debt broadly. They questioned whether the HEROES Act of 2003, which gives the Education Secretary the ability to waive or modify student-loan balances in connection with a national emergency, was the appropriate law to use in this case.
Still, conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined liberal justices in questioning the standing the plaintiffs in both cases had to sue, a standard that requires the plaintiffs to show they would be injured by the policy, that the injury can be directly traced back to the defendant, and that the relief they're seeking would address those injuries.
Some Democratic lawmakers have also previously supported using the Higher Education Act of 1965 to cancel student debt broadly, which does not require relief in connection to a national emergency. Should the Supreme Court rule against Biden's current plan but leave room for an alternate route, the Higher Education Act could be an option — but Biden's administration has said it is not considering a backup plan at this point.