The Supreme Court began hearing challenges on Tuesday over President Joe Biden’s plan to wipe out over $400 billion in student loan debt. Speaking on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program, White House correspondent Jon Decker (who is also a lawyer) laid out the case for and against the controversial plan.
Decker told Riedel and fill-in co-host Joe Bartlett that the Biden Administration believes “They have the authority [to do so], because of the 2003 law called the Heroes Act, which allows the Secretary of Education to modify or waive certain elements of the student loan program.”
On the other hand, Decker pointed out that detractors contend that “There is no explicit directive coming from Congress that the President and Secretary of Education had this authority.” Decker further noted that other covid-related executive actions, such as the eviction moratorium and vaccine mandates, have been previously shot down by the Supreme Court.
Decker also discussed Biden’s extension of emergency programs while simultaneously declaring the covid emergency to be over. “That’s another question the Supreme Court has to confront,” Decker told Riedel and Bartlett.“Is this still a right case, given that the national emergency is not present?”