<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1668454083405,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000172-ebac-d265-adff-fffc847c0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1668454083405,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000172-ebac-d265-adff-fffc847c0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_68454079", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1183674"} }); ","_id":"00000184-779c-d5ff-a7af-7fdf33010000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedThe 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan on Monday, another blow to the program.
The three-judge panel of the appeals court in St. Louis granted a preliminary injunction sought by six Republican-led states hoping to stop the federal government from canceling thousands of dollars in debt for millions of loaners they argue “contravenes the separation of powers and violates the Administrative Procedure Act because it exceeds the Secretary’s authority and is arbitrary and capricious.”
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS PORTAL STOPS ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS
“Not only do the ‘merits of the appeal before this court involve substantial questions of law which remain to be resolved,’” the court ruled, “but the equities strongly favor an injunction considering the irreversible impact the secretary’s debt forgiveness action would have as compared to the lack of harm an injunction would presently impose.”
The states are Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina.
The court had issued a temporary stay of the program last month but required emergency arguments to be presented before fully blocking the order. All three judges on the panel were appointed by Republican presidents, with two of them under former President Donald Trump and the third under former President George W. Bush, according to Politico.
The court additionally rejected a suggestion from Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, who requested that the injunction only apply to the states challenging the policy, claiming doing so would be “impractical.”
The Biden administration announced it would stop accepting student loan forgiveness applications on Friday after a federal judge in Texas ruled the program unlawful a day earlier. A web portal that accepted the request for debt cancellation is now closed with a message informing borrowers that the program is blocked.
Biden announced the plan in August ahead of the November midterm elections, aiming to forgive up to $10,000 in loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 per year, while those who received Pell Grants would have up to $20,000 of their debt canceled.
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Relief for borrowers who received Pell Grants during their schooling jumps up to $20,000. The price tag for the mass cancellation is roughly $400 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Another estimate projected the program to cost nearly $1 trillion.
The Biden administration said it was appealing the ruling by the federal judge in Texas, and this other case could be taken up to the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority. “The injunction will remain in effect until further order of this court or the Supreme Court of the United States,” the Monday ruling said.
Several lawsuits have been filed against the debt relief plan, including plaintiffs from Indiana and Wisconsin who filed emergency applications to the Supreme Court, which were dismissed for what many legal experts believe to be a lack of standing.
