In our Spotlight on Business Report skepticism today from the United States Supreme Court as oral arguments got underway over two challenges to President Biden's plan to forgive student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans well more than a million borrowers in New Jersey have already applied and a senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports their loan forgiveness remains in limbo did the U.S Secretary of Education have the right to implement a student loan debt forgiveness program that question was argued in front of the United States Supreme Court today after a number of republican-led states brought suit against the program this goes far beyond a modification because it is the creation of a brand new program that goes far beyond what Congress intended Congress directed that the secretary has the authority to waive or modify in order to expand eligibility for those forms of relief so we'd ask the court to reject the state's arguments here the arguments against the Biden administration's debt relief program coming from states that say they'll face fiscal harm when loan operators lose massive amounts of their operating budgets but Advocates of the relief say it's a critical step in helping folks recover from the pandemic I think that 10 to 20 thousand dollars of cancellation and student debt would have would be a tremendous benefit to the student loan borrowers I think we have to look at what it really means to support students uh and in fact repair the economy as we come out of the coveted crisis the relief would apply to single borrowers earning less than 125 000 a year and married couples who make less than 250 000 a year up to twenty thousand dollars could be forgiven for people like Patricia Joseph who had to stop working during the pandemic to care for her daughter when schools closed she since faced medical issues and can't afford her 325 a month student loan payments I hope they take into consideration that this forbearance that we're seeking is something that is desperately needed especially for the low-income households that are dealing with significant effects of the covet and still not recuperated but some of the conservative justices indicated today they were questioning the merits of the plan in something like this there are going to be winners and losers that raises similar concerns about individual rights individual liberty Brown ruja pushes back on that notion frankly we're still in an emergency situation and as we emerge from the covid crisis we all know that many different uh systemic problems were revealed to be much deeper than perhaps we all knew and the student debt crisis is one of those problems in the end though their decision may not be based on merits at all but how much Authority was granted to the executive branch in a bill called the heroes Act of 2003. the traditional judicial way to approach it is that it's not what they think the economic impact will be or should be but it did Congress delegate that judgment and that determination to the appropriate agency or official in the executive branch such as in this case the Secretary of Education the state suing say it exceeds the bounds of executive Authority but Chen says the whole case could get thrown out on a Judicial term called standing standing is traditionally a Doctrine used by conservatives to exercise judicial restraints so it might appeal to them to say you know what we shouldn't be even be hearing this case the lower courts shouldn't have heard this case the state of Missouri and Nebraska Etc all those States they will not be affected by this rule one way or the other and that is usually a Bedrock requirement constitutional requirement that the parties before the court have actually some actual personal stake in the outcome and they don't the Supreme Court Justices will decide the case by June I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight news [Music]