Supreme Court strikes down Biden's student loan forgiveness plan

The Supreme Court on Friday struck down President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, denying tens of millions of Americans the chance to get up to $20,000 of their debt erased.

The ruling, which matched expert predictions given the justices' conservative majority, is a massive blow to borrowers who were promised loan forgiveness by the Biden administration last summer.

The 6-3 majority ruled that at least one of the six states that challenged the loan relief program had the proper legal footing, known as standing, to do so.

The high court said the president didn't have the authority to cancel such a large amount of consumer debt without authorization from Congress and agreed the program would cause harm to the plaintiffs.

Financial experts expressed concern about what could come next for borrowers.

The U.S. Department of Education recently warned that pushing people into repayment after an over three-year-long pause and a pandemic that disrupted the financial security of many households without Biden's loan cancellation could trigger a historic rise in delinquencies and defaults.

Consumer advocates slammed the ruling, and accused the court of bias.

"Today's decision is an absolute betrayal to 40 million student loan borrowers counting on an impartial court to decide their financial future based upon the established rule of law," said Persis Yu, deputy executive director at the Student Borrower Protection Center, an advocacy group.

More from Personal Finance:
Borrowers brace for student loan payments to resume
Millions of borrowers to have new student loan servicer
1 in 5 student loan borrowers may struggle when payments resume

Yet the decision is a major win for the plaintiffs who'd worked to block the forgiveness and were worried about the executive branch interfering in the lending sector. At an estimated cost of $400 billion, Biden's policy would have been among the most expensive executive actions in U.S. history.

Republicans were also likely to celebrate the ruling, after recently passing legislation in the House and Senate to overturn the president's plan and criticizing the policy for forcing taxpayers to improve the personal finances of those who'd benefited from higher education. Around half of people in the U.S. don't hold a college degree, which research shows leads to greater earnings.

The justices heard oral arguments at the end of February.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.