Democrats vow to keep fighting for student-loan forgiveness as they slam 'cruel' Supreme Court ruling striking down Biden's plan

• Democratic lawmakers reacted with fury to the Supreme Court's decision striking down Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan.
• The Court found Biden's plan to forgive up to $20,000 in debt for millions of Americans illegal.

Democratic lawmakers quickly condemned the Supreme Court's Friday morning decision invalidating President Joe Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan that would have cancelled more than $400 billion in student debt for tens of millions of borrowers.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the decision by the "the MAGA Republican-controlled" high court "disappointing and cruel" and urged the Biden administration to continue fighting for debt relief.

"The fight will not end here," he tweeted. "The Biden administration has remaining legal routes to provide broad-based student debt cancellation."

Biden's plan, announced at the end of August, would have cancelled up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers who are Pell Grant recipients making under $125,000 a year, and up to $10,000 in student debt for other federal borrowers under the same income cap.

The Supreme Court decision came in two separate rulings on Friday. 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.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and outspoken proponent of student-debt cancellation, called on the Biden administration to "throw everything they've got into the fight" to ensure "more than 40 million hard working Americans" get the relief the president promised.

"The same Supreme Court that overturned Roe now refuses to follow the plain language of the law on student loan cancellation. This fight is not over. The President has more tools to cancel student debt — and he must use them," Warren tweeted on Friday morning.

Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat, noted that student debt disproportionately impacts Black and brown Americans, tweeting, "we cannot accept a return to the failed status quo."

"I raised 2 sons & put them through college as a single mom. I know firsthand how the burden of student loan debt can impact a person's life," she said.

CNN reported on Friday morning that Biden "plans to announce new actions to protect student loan borrowers" during a speech later in the day, according to a source familiar.