The wait will soon be over for millions of student loan borrowers: The U.S. Supreme Court will announce its decision on the Biden administration’s debt relief program on Friday morning.

During oral arguments in February, the court’s conservative majority expressed skepticism about the government’s authority to offer general pardon to an estimated 45 million people with outstanding federal loans, about 3.8 million of them in California. But the court’s liberal judges suggested that the lawsuits against the program should be dismissed because the plaintiffs had not been harmed by it.

The Supreme Court indicated on Thursday that it would issue its final rulings Friday at 7 a.m. (Pacific). In addition to the debt relief lawsuits, the court has yet to rule on a web designer’s challenge to a Colorado anti-discrimination law that requires her to design websites even if they express views that conflict with her religious beliefs, in this case websites that same-sex marriages.

If past practice is any guide, the student loan ruling should be issued before 8am. Instead of releasing all the opinions of the day at once, the judges do them one at a time, giving the verdict’s author and any dissenting opinions a chance to read aloud a summary of what they’ve written.

As soon as the advice is known, it will be available on the Opinions of the Court page on the website of the Supreme Court.

What should student loan borrowers do while awaiting the Supreme Court’s pardon decision?

According to the Education Data Initiative, nearly 10% of California residents have student loan debt. All told, Californians owe $142 billion, or an average of $37,084 per borrower.

The government’s program would scrap $10,000 in federal student loans for any borrower who earned less than $125,000 (or, for couples filing joint tax returns, less than $250,000 per household). The program would forgive an additional $10,000 in debt for qualified borrowers who received Pell Grants, a form of financial aid for lower-income students.

Regardless of what happens Friday, borrowers with outstanding balances will need to resume their monthly payments in October. The Department of Education’s financial aid website, studentaid.gov, tells borrowers that interest on their loans begins September 1 and must be paid again the following month.

The Department of Education says it will send borrowers a statement of account at least three weeks in advance, showing when their payment is due and how much they owe. So if you haven’t already, you’ll need to confirm your contact information on the Federal Student Aid website, studentaid.gov.