Biden says he's 'not confident' his student-loan forgiveness plan will be upheld by the Supreme Court

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House on January 12, 2023. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

• Biden said he's "not confident" the Supreme Court will uphold his student-debt relief plan.
• He noted, though, that he's confident in the plan's legality.
• The Supreme Court will make a final decision on the student-loan forgiveness by June.

One day after the Supreme Court concluded oral arguments on student-loan forgiveness, President Joe Biden weighed in.

"I'm confident we're on the right side of the law," Biden told reporters on Wednesday. "I'm not confident about the outcome of the decision yet."

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court took on the two conservative-backed lawsuits that temporarily paused Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt at the end of August. One of the cases was brought by six Republican-led states who argued the relief would hurt their states' tax revenues, and the other case was filed on behalf of two student-loan borrowers who sued because they did not qualify for the full $20,000 amount of relief.

In the conservative majority Supreme Court, the conservative justices challenged Biden's counsel on whether his plan demonstrated executive overreach, and Justices Neal Gorsuch and John Roberts also took on the issue of fairness, and whether the relief is fair to those who did not take out any student loans or actively avoiding doing so.

Still, the liberal justices drilled into the issue of standing in both of cases, with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining that line of questioning. Proving standing in a lawsuit means showing that the plaintiff would be injured by the policy, that the injury can be directly traced back to the defendant, and that the relief they're seeking would address those injuries. If the Supreme Court finds the cases do not have standing, the cases will be dismissed — the court would not even have the authority to rule on the other issues of executive overreach after that point.

Even with the conservatives in the majority, it's unclear how exactly the Supreme Court will rule. Following the arguments, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona released a statement expressing confidence that the plan is legal and should prevail in court.

"The Department of Justice argued against the lawsuits aimed at denying relief to borrowers, made clear that challengers to the program lack standing to even bring their cases to court, and explained the Department of Education's decades-old authority used by multiple administrations to protect borrowers from the effects of national emergencies," Cardona said.

"President Biden, Vice President Harris, and I recognize how essential this relief is for tens of millions of Americans, and we are fighting to deliver much-needed help to borrowers trying to get back on their feet after the economic crisis caused by the pandemic," he added.