Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Thursday rejected a challenge to President Joe Biden’s student debt relief program after a group of Wisconsin taxpayers argued he overstepped his authority on the measure that could cost up to $1 trillion.
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Barrett, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, denied the Brown County Taxpayers Association’s emergency application without comment or without referring the application to the full court.
The lawsuit’s denial indicates that the challengers lacked the ability to show they suffered direct injury.
SUPREME COURT ASKED TO HALT BIDEN STUDENT LOAN DEBT RELIEF BY WISCONSIN TAXPAYERS
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which filed the suit on behalf of the taxpayers, argued Biden exceeded his authority to use the 2003 HEROES Act, which allows the education secretary to make amendments to financial assistance programs for students “in connection with a war or other military operation or national emergency.”
The challengers wanted the high court to block the loan forgiveness program while an appeal plays out at the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Of course, we are disappointed that the court denied us emergency relief,” Dan Lennington, WILL deputy counsel, told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “But that does not make the program lawful. Student loan forgiveness will remain under review by the courts and could possibly still be paused as we advocated for this week.”
Biden has touted the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the main reasons to extend the moratorium on federal student loan payments, as well as his reasoning to forgive thousands of dollars in debt per individual borrower.
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The president announced plans in August to forgive $10,000 for student loan borrowers making under $125,000 annually and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.
The plan to cancel outstanding student debt will cost the country roughly $400 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, while another budget model pegged the cost at nearly $1 trillion.
