High Court Sets Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Plan for February

February is set to be another blockbuster month at the US Supreme Court, as the justices scheduled its high-profile arguments over the president’s student loan forgiveness program.

Estimated to cost $400 billion, President Joe Biden’s plan would forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans for borrowers earning less than $125,000 per year. The plan is currently on hold while the case is pending before the justices.

The student loan argument scheduled for Feb. 28 comes in a term that’s already shaping up to be another consequential one, with arguments already completed on affirmative action, voting rights, and the latest clash between LGBTQ and religious rights.

The court will hear two separate cases challenging the student loan program. Six Republican-led states are challenging the president’s authority to pass the sweeping policy in Biden v. Nebraska. And in Dept. of Education v. Brown, the justices will consider a challenge brought by two borrowers who say they were unfairly excluded from the program.

The court has also scheduled two highly anticipated social media cases for its February sitting, both brought on behalf of families whose loved ones were killed in ISIS terror attacks.

In Gonzalez v. Google, the justices will consider the scope of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act’s protections for social media platforms for third party content. The case tests whether those companies are entitled to those protections when they target certain content to users based on their past activities on the site. That will be argued Feb. 21.

Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh asks whether social media companies can be liable outside of Section 230 for allowing the terror group to use its site. That case will be argued Feb. 22.