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Proponents of the relief include two top labor unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers; a coalition of city and county governments nationwide; 21 Democratic-led states and Washington, DC; and liberal-leaning advocacy groups such as the Student Borrower Protection Center and NAACP.

“This is a lot of people, 40 million, and about half would be debt free as a result of this program,” said Persis Yu, managing counsel of the Student Borrower Protection Center, one of the groups hosting the protest. “The other thing that’s really important to recognize is that as life-changing as this would be, it would be devastating for them if it doesn’t happen.”

Groups across the country wanting at least some student debt erased plan to rally on Tuesday in front of the Supreme Court building, including some from Georgia. The New Georgia Project Action Fund is mobilizing about 45 young borrowers of color for a bus trip from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., to attend the rally.

A “People’s Rally for Student Debt Cancellation” protest of the plan in front of the Court is scheduled for that day, and co-sponsors of the rally include the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), the Debt Collective, the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC), the NAACP, MoveOn, the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), and the National Education Association (NEA).

The rally is planned for the day the Court will hear oral arguments in two cases challenging the Biden Administration’s student debt cancellation program. Legal experts from the Student Borrower Protection Center, National Consumer Law Center and Democracy Forward plan to attend the hearings.

“I don’t know many people in the world, and certainly none of the clients that I’ve ever worked with, who would say that, ‘all of a sudden, I can start making several hundred-dollar payments that I didn’t have to make the month before,’” Yu says. “It’s a big issue for older Americans, it’s a big issue for people with disabilities, it’s a big issue for communities of color, it’s a big issue for…

“The logical remedy for the harm that they said they suffered would be to expand the program, but that’s not what they’re asking for,” Yu said. “They’re asking for it to be completely invalidated for no one to get relief, and I think that’s how this is not genuinely about the borrowers who are excluded, but this is a politically motivated lawsuit as well.”