The Biden administration continues to appeal for the implementation of student-loan forgiveness—taking the ruling to the Supreme Court.
Key Details
- President Joe Biden signed an executive order on August 24 allowing for up to $20,000 in student loan debt forgiveness for debt holders making less than $125,000 per year in income.
- The law has faced numerous lawsuits and challenges. It was formally struck down earlier this month when Texas U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman ruled that it lacks legislative approval and abuses executive power.
- An appeal to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans was declined on Wednesday night.
- The Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it will hear oral arguments and hear the administration’s case. The February hearings will “expedite” the process but funds will remain blocked until after the hearing.
Why it’s News
A non-partisan panel of three judges reviewed the Biden administration’s argument, that student loan forgiveness was legal under the HEROS Act which gives the president the right to release student loan debt in specific circumstances. The panel upheld Pittman’s ruling that the executive order was unconstitutional. The decision from two appeals courts against the executive order effectively halts the program.
“The high court kept the program’s implementation on pause. That means Biden will continue to be blocked from implementing loan forgiveness at least until the Supreme Court rules next year,” says USA Today.
As we previously reported, the program has already approved tens of thousands of applications for debt relief but cannot pay out funds until the legal challenges have been resolved, “if and when we prevail in court.”
Emergency Appeals against the executive order have already been filed to the Supreme Court three times but were denied by Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on the grounds that the lawsuits provided insufficient evidence for damages. Legal analysts are generally leaning against the administration’s appeals and believe it will be struck down on the grounds Pittman struck it down with.
