WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t think it wants to take personally the “crushing weight” of student debt that underlies the Biden administration’s college loan forgiveness plan.
Justice Clarence Thomas was in his mid-40s and in his third year on the nation’s highest court when he paid off his last loan from Yale Law School.
Thomas, the court’s longest-serving justice and staunch conservative, has been skeptical of other Biden administration initiatives. And when the Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday involving President Joe Biden’s debt relief plan that would write off outstanding student loans up to $20,000, Thomas won’t be an option for the administration.
But the judge’s own experience may be relevant to the way he approaches cases, and it’s only among them that Thomas has written about the role of student loans in financial struggles.
One law school student even suggested Thomas file bankruptcy after graduation “to get out of the weight of all his student loans,” the judge said in his best-selling 2007 memoir, “My Grandfather’s Son.” He rejected the idea.
It is unclear whether other judges borrowed money to attend college or law school or did so for their children’s education. Some judges grew up in relative wealth. Others reportedly have scholarships to pay for some of the country’s most expensive private institutions.
Of the seven judges on the court who are parents, four have signaled through investments that they don’t want their own children saddled with heavy college debt, and have piled money into tax-free college savings accounts that can limit their needs. for a loan.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Judge Neil Gorsuch have the most, at least $600,000 and at least $300,000, respectively, according to annual disclosure reports filed by the justices in 2022. Each has two children.
Justices Amy Coney Barrett, who has seven children, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who has two, have also invested money in a college savings account, where any income or growth is tax free if spent on education.
Neither judge would comment for this story, a court spokeswoman said.
Thomas writes vividly about his past money problems in his poverty story, recounting how the bank once foreclosed on one of his loans because notices of repayment and arrears were sent to his grandparents’ home in Savannah, Georgia, instead of Thomas’ home. at the time in Jefferson City, Missouri.
Thomas was able to take out another loan to repay the bank only because his mentor, John Danforth, Missouri attorney general and later a US senator, vouched for him.
Thomas noted that he enrolled in a tuition deferment program at Yale in which a group of students jointly pay off outstanding loans according to their financial ability, with the highest paid.
At that time, Thomas’ first wife, Kathy, was pregnant. “I didn’t know what to do, so I signed on the dotted line, and waited the next twenty years to pay off the money I borrowed during my last two years at Yale,” Thomas wrote.
When he was first nominated for a federal judgeship in 1989, Thomas reported $10,000 in outstanding student loans, according to news reports at the time. The Biden administration chose an amount equal to the amount of debt that most borrowers would receive under the plan.
Personal experiences can shape a judge’s questions in the courtroom and influence personal conversations about a case, even without the outcome.
“I hope someone has a different life experience just because it adds to the conversation,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Sotomayor, like Thomas, also grew up poor. He won a full scholarship to Princeton as an undergraduate, he said, and went on to Yale for law school, just as Thomas did.
Preventing people from making the tough choices that Thomas faces is a key part of the administration’s argument for debt forgiveness. The government says that without additional help, many borrowers will default on payments if the hold-ups since the start of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago are lifted, at least this summer.
Under a plan announced in August, but so far blocked by a federal court, $10,000 in federal loans would be canceled for people making less than $125,000 or for households with an income of less than $250,000. Recipients of Pell Grants, who tend to have fewer financial resources, will incur an additional $10,000 in debt.
The White House said 26 million people have applied and 16 million have been approved for relief. The program is estimated to cost $400 billion over the next three decades.
The legal battle could involve several elements, including whether the Republican-led states and individuals suing the plan have legal standing to go to court and whether Biden has the authority under federal law for the extensive debt forgiveness program.
Nebraska and other states that have challenged the program say that far from backing out, 20 million borrowers will get a “windfall” as all of their student loans are wiped out, Nebraska Attorney General Michael Hilgers wrote in the state’s lead Supreme Court brief.
Which arguments fit the court may become clear on Tuesday.
When she was dean of Harvard Law School, Justice Elena Kagan expressed her concern about the high cost of law school, especially for students considering low-paying jobs.
Kagan established a program that allows students to attend their final year of college for free if they agree to a five-year commitment to work in the public sector. While the program no longer exists, Harvard offers grants to students for public service work.
When the program was created, Kagan said she wanted students to work where they “can make the biggest difference, but that’s not the case now.” But, he said, “They often work in places where they don’t want to work because of their debt burden.”