What Are Biden's Options if SCOTUS Blocks Student Loan Debt Relief?

President Joe Biden's student debt relief plan is well on its way after the Supreme Court denied one of several applications filed to block the plan on Thursday.

The White House passed the plan in August, eliminating up to $10,000 for borrowers who make less than $125,000 and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. The relief is only available for those with federal loans rather than private loans, however some states are saying that any student loan debt relief could harm their incomes by eliminating profits from interest.

Shortly after the plan passed, six Republican-led states filed a lawsuit saying the president didn't act lawfully with the policy. Many other lawsuits challenging the policy are still pending, with University of Texas Law Professor Stephen Vladeck expecting there to be more in the future. However, he told Newsweek that so far, none of the plaintiffs have been able to prove they were uniquely harmed by the policy.

"The way the debt relief policy is structured, it's not obvious for who has standing (in a lawsuit against the policy)," Vladeck said. "It's not the case that anytime the government does something we don't like, we can just walk into court and sue the government."

"We have to show that the government policy we think is unlawful is actually injuring us in some unique and concrete way," he added. "The theory behind that is if it's just what the court calls generalized grievance, the way to change that is not in court, it's in the political process."

In the lawsuit with the six Republican-led states (Arkansas, South Carolina, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri) challenging the policy, Vladeck said that it would be tough for the states to prove they are more uniquely affected by the policy than the other 44 states. Some lawsuits, such as the Republican-led one, allege that Biden took unlawful action in passing the policy, but Vladeck said courts won't be able to decide on whether the program is legal or not until they find a plaintiff who has standing.

"Usually, when there's a new policy, you don't sit around to think who's actually harmed by it. It's usually obvious," Vladeck said. "A new immigration policy affects asylum applicants, or we have a new criminal statute that affects people prosecuted under it. Here, in contrast, the objections are principally political, not to say those are not significant. It's just to say not all policy objections give you standing to sue in court."

If a future case succeeds in garnering a Supreme Court ruling to block the plan, depending on the reason, Biden has several options on how to respond.

"Let's say there was a final ruling striking down the debt relief plan, I think at that point the option the Biden administration has really depends upon what was the basis of that justice?" University of Chicago Law Professor Aziz Huq told Newsweek.

If the Supreme Court found a procedural flaw in the plan or if Biden lacked authority to approve the plan, the president could take action to fix the flaws in the procedure or work with Congress to create a different plan. However, if the Court rules the plan unconstitutional, there's little Biden can do.

"That's another problem entirely and doesn't always have a route out," Huq said. "Without seeing the litigation play out, it's impossible to know which of those would be the case, if any."

If a party does surface that has standing in court, litigation could take weeks or months. Even if the student debt relief plan is blocked, courts are unlikely to require students who already received relief under the plan to return it. The ruling would likely only block future relief.

"I have a hard time seeing how you un-ring the bell for folks who have already had debt relieved," Vladeck told Newsweek.

Applications for debt relief are currently being accepted and students can apply until December 31, 2023. The application is a short online form, which can be accessed here.