Six Republican-led states asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to reject President Joe Biden‘s bid to cancel billions of dollars in student debt, drawing the battle lines at the nation’s highest court against a plan that could affect 40 million U.S. residents.
The six states are Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina and argue the Biden plan violates the separation of powers by attempting to enact a massive debt relief program that is estimated to cost nearly $400 billion over the next 30 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
“The administration is once again invoking the COVID-19 pandemic to assert power far beyond anything Congress could have conceived,” the states told the high court in a 42-page brief. “While President Biden publicly declares the pandemic over, the secretary and Department of Education are using COVID-19 to justify the mass debt cancellation.”
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION ASKS SUPREME COURT TO REVIVE STUDENT DEBT RELIEF PLAN
Two federal courts have temporarily frozen Biden’s plan, prompting the administration to announce on Tuesday that a pandemic-era nationwide pause on student debt repayments would continue until June of next year, or at least until litigation is resolved in court.
The states’ brief comes in response to the Biden administration’s emergency appeal filed Friday at the Supreme Court, which asked the justices to revive the program while litigation continues. The administration argues Congress authorizes the Department of Education to waive or modify regulatory provisions it deems necessary for federal student loans.
A federal court in Missouri dismissed the state’s request to block the program last month, ruling that it lacked the legal authority, or standing, to show that the program caused damage to plaintiffs challenging the policy. On appeal, the U.S. Court of Appeals of the 8th Circuit sided with the states’ request to halt the program temporarily.
Biden enacted the debt relief plan in August under the 2003 HEROES Act, arguing the law gives the president authority to forgive student loan debt in association with military operations or national emergencies. While the administration has cited the COVID-19 pandemic as justification, GOP-led states contend the president has declared the pandemic is over in comments to the media.
The HEROES Act necessitates “a real connection to a national emergency,” the states argue, adding that the administration’s “reliance on the COVID-19 pandemic is a pretext to mask the president’s true goal of fulfilling his campaign promise to erase student-loan debt.”
The administration’s emergency application defends the nearly 40 million borrowers, saying that keeping the program blocked leaves them “in limbo, uncertain about the size of their debt and unable to make financial decisions with an accurate understanding of their future repayment obligations.”
Biden’s plan aims to forgive $10,000 in student loan debt for individual residents making less than $125,000 or households with less than $250,000 in income. Meanwhile, Pell Grant recipients would receive an additional $10,000 in debt forgiveness. The plan has been blocked since the appeals court issued a temporary hold last month, and the administration has since closed the online application portal.
The administration’s Supreme Court request marks the third time that the student loan forgiveness plan has come before the justices but the first time the administration has sought relief. Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied an emergency application for a Wisconsin taxpayer group on Oct. 20.
Barrett also denied a challenge from a libertarian legal group that appealed on behalf of two people entitled to “automatic” cancellation of their debt. The plaintiffs argued that automatic cancellation of their debt would create an “excess tax liability under state law,” but the administration later amended its policy to omit the borrowers from the program.
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The extension of the debt repayment pause on Tuesday marked the eighth time the Education Department has extended the pandemic-era relief policy, which first began in early 2020 under President Donald Trump’s administration.
The pause will be extended until 60 days after the Biden administration is allowed to implement its student loan forgiveness plan and litigation is resolved. But if it can’t proceed with its policy and the legal challenges are still ongoing by June 30, 2023, student loan payments will resume 60 days after that.
