Dec. 12 (UPI) — The Supreme Court will hear a second case in regards to the legality of President Joe Biden‘s student loan forgiveness program in this session it announced Monday.
The high court added a case petitioned by two loan borrowers, Myra Brown and Alexander Taylor, who challenged the program in a lower court in October. In this case, the court will discuss whether Brown and Taylor have a valid argument against the plan and whether the plan itself is legal.
Oral arguments are slated to begin in February or early March.
Brown is not eligible for relief under Biden’s plan and Taylor is eligible for $10,000 in relief. Eligible pell grant recipients may receive up to $20,000 in debt relief.
Brown and Taylor brought the lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education and Education Secretary Matt Cardona to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The suit argues that parties affected by the student loan forgiveness plan were not given the opportunity to comment on it as it was developed, as ensured by the Administrative Procedure Act.
“Simply put, the APA’s notice-and-comment requirements promote “openness, explanation, and participatory democracy” and are a critical check on “the dangers of arbitrariness and irrationality in the formulation of rules,” the lawsuit said.
It alleges the Department of Education “flagrantly violated” the act’s notice-and-comment requirements by engineering the forgiveness plan behind closed doors. It called the decisions about who will receive debt relief “arbitrary,” and charges that the details were “hammered out” hastily to be rolled out before the 2022 midterms.
The Brown and Taylor case follows a lawsuit from six Republican-led states which challenged the student loan forgiveness plan in a federal appeals court in Missouri. The states involved in this coalition are Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina. The appeals court ruled in favor of the coalition and issued an injunction to halt the plan from moving forward.
The Biden administration urged the Supreme Court to take up arguments over the $400 billion plan earlier this month and Cardona said he is confident the plan is lawful.
The Education Department approved about 16 million applications before halting the program to await a decision from the Supreme Court.
President Biden extended the student loan payment pause until no later than June 30.
