Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warns of 'economic crisis for millions of people' after SCOTUS threw out Biden's plan for student-debt forgiveness

• Rep. Ocasio-Cortez condemned the Supreme Court's ruling striking down Biden's student debt plan.
• The New York Democrat called on Biden to continue working to get borrowers relief.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned the Supreme Court's Friday decision striking down President Joe Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan and called on her own party to continue fighting for student-debt relief.

Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat and prominent supporter of student-loan forgiveness, also accused the high court of corruption, arguing that recent reporting finding Justice Samuel Alito took gifts from a billionaire "undercuts its own legitimacy by putting its rulings up for sale."

"Justice Alito accepted tens of thousands of dollars in lavish vacation gifts from a billionaire who lobbied to cancel the student loan forgiveness," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "After the gifts, Alito voted to overturn."

The Supreme Court's decision came in two separate rulings. The high court ruled that the plaintiffs in one case, US Department of Education v. Brown, did not have standing — but the second case, Biden v. Nebraska, prevailed and the six GOP-led states had standing to sue on behalf of student-loan company, MOHELA.

The New York Democrat noted that the SCOTUS ruling does not strip away Biden's ability to pursue student-loan forgiveness. The Higher Education Act is one option for continuing loan forgiveness before payments are scheduled to resume in October.

"We still have the power to cancel and must use it, or we're looking at an economic crisis for millions of people," Ocasio-Cortez wrote in another tweet.

Last year, the Department of Education forgave $6 billion for around 200,000 defrauded students under a sweeping settlement, including students who applied for relief over seven years ago. In 2019, former President Donald Trump also wiped out debt for disabled veterans under the Total and Permanent Disability Discharge. Advocates have also pointed out that Biden could use a different act — the Higher Education Act — to provide relief.

A slew of other Democratic lawmakers issued statements condemning the student debt ruling on Friday morning and calling on the Biden administration to take additional action to get relief for borrowers.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the decision by the "the MAGA Republican-controlled" high court "disappointing and cruel" and vowed "the fight will not end here."

Schumer and other Democrats similarly accused Supreme Court justices of hypocrisy and corruption by receiving gifts from billionaires, while denying millions of needy Americans debt relief.