Two legal challenges to the Biden administration’s student loan relief program were dismissed last week. State attorneys general behind one of the challenges appealed the dismissal, prompting a federal court to temporarily block the program.
10/21/2022 1:30 P.M.
2 minute read
A Wisconsin case and lawsuit from state attorneys general challenging the Biden administration’s student loan debt relief program were tossed out last week. But the state attorneys general appealed, and the program has been temporarily blocked.
Wisconsin Case
First, in a quick turnaround, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied an emergency request from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) to have their case heard by the high court, The Hill reports.
Barrett is charged with handling such emergency requests from Wisconsin, and appeared to have made the decision alone rather than sending it to the full court, according to the article.
A federal judge dismissed the Wisconsin group’s legal challenge to the plan on Oct. 6, determining the plaintiff did not have standing as a taxpayer. That dismissal remains in effect with Barrett’s decision, and the appeal remains in a lower court, according to The Hill.
WILL filed the lawsuit against President Joe Biden and the U.S. Department of Education on behalf of the Brown County Taxpayers Association, ACA International previously reported.
WILL asked the court to immediately block the student loan forgiveness plans while the legal challenge proceeds.
The group argues the plan violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment in addition to usurping authority from Congress because the White House claimed the program was intended to improve racial justice.
Attorney General Case
A Missouri judge also dismissed a case against the program from six Republican state attorneys general, Politico reports.
The judge, U.S. District Judge Henry Edward Autrey, said the states did not spell out the “type of harm that’s needed to have their legal challenge heard in federal court,” according to the Politico article.
While the plaintiffs present important and significant challenges to the debt relief plan,” Autrey wrote in a 19-page decision, according to the article, they are “unable to proceed to the resolution of these challenges.”
He noted that his ruling “was focused on the state’s lack of standing and was not a comment on the legality of the debt relief plan.”
Then, in another turn of events, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit issued a ruling that the program should be temporarily blocked while legal challenges proceed.
The circuit court’s ruling was in response to the attorney general’s appeal, and the Biden administration must issue a response to the proceedings by Monday evening, The Hill reports.
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