We've written recently about the "movement" (i.e. Facebook page) to
have Congress cancel student loan debt. While a blanket cancellation doesn't appear any more likely to happen any time soon, we do have an update on what's likely to come next in the student loan debate.
As reported on Monday at
SCOTUSBLOG (with link to cert petition),
FindLaw's Strategist, and elsewhere, the Court agreed to hear
United Student Aid
Funds, Inc. v. Espinosa, which involves the discharge of student loans via bankruptcy proceedings. Such a discharge is statutorily forbidden, of course, so what could there be for SCOTUS to decide? Is the Roberts Court just itching for a chance to do some legislating from the bench, and discover a brand-new constitutional right to be free of burdensome loan debt? Err, no. It's going to be a lot more mundane than that, and you're going to have to keep writing monthly checks.
Espinosa, it seems, listed his debt to United Student Aid Funds as one of the debts to be discharged in his Chapter 13 proceeding. Normally, you can't just do this; you first have to initiate an adversary proceeding in which you prove (while the lender works to disprove) that you have an "undue hardship" that permits your student-loan debt to be included in the bankruptcy.