Even Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal, said the sums involved were legally significant. “That seems to favor the argument that this is a major question,” she said.
The law the administration relied on, the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003, usually called the HEROES Act, gives the secretary of education the power to “waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision” to protect borrowers affected by “a war or other military operation or national emergency.”
Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas were skeptical that the words “waive or modify” allowed outright cancellation. “It doesn’t say modify or waive loan balances,” the chief justice said.
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said that Congress “could have in 2003 referred to loan cancellation and loan forgiveness, and those are not in the statutory text.”
Later, though, Justice Kavanaugh described “waive” as “an extremely broad word,” adding that “in 2003, Congress was very aware of potential emergency actions in the wake of Sept. 11.”
Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar, representing the administration, said its plan fit comfortably within the statutory language, which she said had authorized the secretary of education to act. “The whole point of this statute, its central mission and function, is to ensure that in the face of a national emergency that is causing financial harm to borrowers, the secretary can do something,” she said.
Ms. Prelogar noted that the Trump administration had also relied on the 2003 law.
In March 2020, President Donald J. Trump declared that the coronavirus pandemic was a national emergency, and his administration invoked the HEROES Act to pause student loan repayment requirements and to suspend the accrual of interest.