Student Loan Forgiveness Ruling Remains A High Priority For Supreme Court This Term

The societal impact of the 2022-2023 Supreme Court term, however it plays out, will be no match for the previous term when the court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion -- still, there’s plenty of reason to be watching these next few weeks.

The conservative court has already grabbed headlines with an unexpected ruling in an Alabama voting rights case and limiting the authority of the EPA, but there are more rulings to come, related to free speech, affirmative action, and perhaps the most anticipated of all those still remaining, on President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness program.

"I'm confident we're on the right side of the law," said Biden this spring, "but I'm not confident about the outcome of the decision yet."

The Court has been asked to decide if President Biden has the authority to forgive as much as $400 billion in student loans, a move Oklahoma members panned last summer when the program was first announced.

“This shortsighted decision will exacerbate record-high inflation and raise the cost of tuition in the long run," Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK5). "Forgiveness without accountability is not a solution.”

Applications from about 16 million Americans -- including 172,000 Oklahomans -- were approved under the forgiveness plan, according to the administration, before numerous states sued and a lower court put it all on hold, pending the Supreme Court's decision.

In addition to ruling on the student debt forgiveness case, the Justices will also be deciding whether race can be included in college admissions criteria, whether protection of religious freedom trumps the guarantee of equal access, and whether the Indian Child Welfare Act, ICWA, is constitutional.

The Cherokee Nation is party to that case, Haaland v. Breckeen, and recently reelected Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin was there for the arguments last November.

"Anyone who sat through the proceedings that I sat through today," said Hoskin following oral arguments, "knows that the Justices got a full analysis of the law and the relevant facts, and I believe they’ll come down on the side of finding ICWA constitutional."

The Court should wrap up its work in all the 2022-2023 cases by the end of the month.