WASHINGTON– Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Biden v. Nebraska that overturns the Biden-Harris Administration’s student debt relief program that stood to benefit millions of borrowers. While the Supreme Court simultaneously dismissed a similar challenge in Department of Education v. Brown on standing grounds, the Court’s misguided legal analysis in Nebraska found Missouri had standing to challenge the program. Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, issued this statement following the Court’s decision:
“Today the Court chose to needlessly impose financial hardship on millions of Americans, failing to recognize the administration’s clear legal authority to forgive student debt. This lawful and sensible debt relief had the power to transform millions of lives, lifting them from a negative financial net worth to a position of newfound economic security. Ending this important program will have potential impacts for generations to come, and is a lost opportunity that economists will be talking about for decades. We are disappointed by the Court’s decision to dismantle the student debt relief program, reneging on promises made to the millions of lower-income borrowers sorely in need of the financial stability this program afforded them. The Biden-Harris Administration created this plan to address the unprecedented economic harm caused by the pandemic, taking into consideration the disproportionate burden Black and Latinx borrowers have historically taken on to afford educational opportunities from which they have been historically excluded.
“Just as we demonstrated in our amicus brief, overturning the program will only exacerbate pre-existing racial disparities, further feeding into educational inequities that continue to disadvantage Black and brown students to the advantage of white students. Overturning student debt cancellation will have profound implications on Black and other communities of color; and with education costs and debt continuing to rise, compounded by a decision curtailing affirmative action in college admissions, the impact could be far-reaching—if we let it.
“The Court’s decisions–including its disgraceful ruling on affirmative action–remind us of the tremendous work we still have to do to address deep-rooted barriers to educational access. With the gut punch on affirmative action, followed by the sucker punch on student debt relief, a majority of this Court is trying to remake the law. That is why we must now call on higher education leaders ro remake higher education. Student debt is a symptom of an overarching problem: an education system that is unaffordable, inaccessible and inequitable. We must do more to ensure this system fairly serves our nation’s students who rely on it.”
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About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to mobilize the nation’s leading lawyers as agents for change in the Civil Rights Movement. Today, the Lawyers’ Committee uses legal advocacy to achieve racial justice, fighting inside and outside the courts to ensure that Black people and other people of color have the voice, opportunity, and power to make the promises of our democracy real. For more information, please visit https://lawyerscommittee.org
