During Supreme Court oral arguments over the Biden administration's $400 billion student debt relief plan, Chief Justice John Roberts referred to the Trump administration "acting on its own" to cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, saying, "We blocked that effort" in 2020.

At stake on Tuesday are two cases challenging President Joe Biden's plan to forgive up to $20,000 for millions of student loan borrowers. Many legal experts have suggested the justices might defer to the "major questions doctrine," a legal doctrine the 6-3 Republican-appointed majority court has used to limit executive agency power in the federal government.

"The case reminds me of the one we had a few years ago under a different administration, where the administration tried acting on its own to cancel the DREAMers program ... and we blocked that effort," said Roberts, speaking to Justice Department Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who is defending the loan forgiveness plan.

The decision Roberts referenced was a 5-4 opinion written by him, in which he sided with the liberal justices against the Trump administration's efforts to end the DACA program. Roberts's legal parallels between Trump's overreach on undoing protections for certain undocumented immigrants and Biden's unilateral plan to wipe away student debt could spell trouble for the fate of the program that already has 16 million applicants.

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"And I just wonder, given the posture of the case and given our historic concern about the separation of powers, you would recognize at least that this is a case that presents extraordinarily serious, important issues about the role of Congress ... significant enough that the major questions doctrine ought to be considered," Roberts added.

Under the doctrine, if an agency works in a way that could have major political or economic implications, it must request the authority of Congress. The six Republican states challenging the plan are arguing the college debt relief plan is too massive for the Biden administration to use the authority in debt relief implementation.

The Department of Education used the HEROES Act of 2003, which is designed to allow for student debt relief during national emergencies or wartime, to justify forgiving millions of borrowers under the argument that they would be in a worse position to pay their dues following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The secretary acted within the heartland of his authority and in line with the central purpose of the HEROES Act in providing that relief here," Prelogar said. "To apply the major questions doctrine to override that clear text will deny borrowers critical relief that Congress authorized and the secretary deemed essential."

Earlier, in arguments, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested the cost of the forgiveness plan "seems to favor the argument that this is a major question."

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Prelogar acknowledged the plan was a "significant action" but struggled to think that the sheer cost of the plan can be the "sole measure for triggering application of the major questions doctrine."

The arguments took place in Nebraska v. Biden, the first of two challenges to Biden's student debt relief plan.