This past Friday, officials within the Biden administration petitioned the Justices of the Supreme Court to issue their own ruling regarding the administration’s massive student loan forgiveness plan, and allow the plan to carry on its operations.
The plan has been hit with quite a few legal hitches and is currently on hold in the wake of a ruling coming down from an appellate court this past week.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit issued its ruling this past Monday in favor of a series of six Republican-leaning states who called on the court to put a pause on all debt forgiveness as the court proceedings take place. The court chose to put through an injunction to stop the issuing of any forgiveness. This past month, the court also put forth an administrative stay to the states, but this week found that at minimum one state has grounds to sue.
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar expressed to the court via a filing that the “Eighth Circuit’s erroneous injunction leaves millions of economically vulnerable borrowers in limbo, uncertain about the size of their debt and unable to make financial decisions with an accurate understanding of their future repayment obligations.”
If the Justices do not make the choice to toss out the injunction, Prelogar claimed it should “set the case for expedited briefing and argument this Term to avoid prolonging this uncertainty for the millions of affected borrowers.”
Late last week, Mark Pittman, a Texas U.S. District Judge, ruled that the plan from the Biden administration was, in fact, illegal, which essentially made it so that the Education Department could not take in additional applications or dismiss any student debt. The White House put forth its own appeal to the ruling quite quickly after the original ruling was made public.
The states at the nexus of the case which resulted in the injunction being put forth make the claim that the plan from the Biden admin works in violation of the separations of power and the Administrative Procedure Act, explains a CNN report. One district court claimed that the states would not end up being successful, but the Eight Circuit inverted the ruling.
The overall constitutionality and legality of this student loan forgiveness plan is still being looked into. It is slated to issue $10,000 in debt cancellation for qualifying student loan borrowers who earn less than $125,000 as individuals or earn $250,000 as a household. Those who obtained Pell Grants could have up to $20,000 canceled.
