IT'S NOT A RADICAL cOURT:

Early in the hearing, Chief Justice John Roberts questioned Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who is defending the program, about the argument by the plaintiffs that Congress needed to approve the debt relief first before it was set in motion. That did not happen in this case.

"Do you think Congress shouldn't be surprised when half a trillion dollars gets wiped off the books?" asked Roberts, who is part of the court's conservative supermajority.

"I think most casual observers would say if you're going to give up that amount of money ... then Congress should" have to approve that, Roberts later said.

A liberal justice, Sonia Sotomayor, echoed that...

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