A libertarian legal group filed an emergency request to the Supreme Court on Tuesday asking it to block President Joe Biden‘s student debt relief plan, marking the second of such filings over the $400 billion plan.
Biden aims to cancel up to $20,000 in debt for certain borrowers in a massive debt relief plan he announced in August. Since then, the plan has been met with numerous lawsuits, including the latest by the Pacific Legal Foundation on Tuesday, appealing a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit that refused to block the program last week.
“The administration is attempting to erase half a trillion dollars in debt without any legal basis,” Caleb Kruckenberg, an attorney at PLF, told the Washington Examiner. “The Court ought to put the brakes on this lawless action while it’s considered by the courts.”
APPEALS COURT TEMPORARILY HALTS BIDEN’S STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS PLAN
The latest filing by PLF was filed on behalf of two people entitled to “automatic cancellation” of their debt under Biden’s plan. The plaintiffs claim that the automatic cancellation of the debt would cause “excess tax liability under state law.”
So far, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit has already temporarily halted Biden’s plan in response to six Republican-led states who claimed the cancellation plan would prompt borrowers with Federal Family Education Loans to consolidate their debts into Direct Loans. The appeals court imposed a stay, preventing applicants from beginning to receive forgiveness on their loans despite millions who have signed up for the president’s program through a novel web page created for applicants.
“At no point has the government made a plausible argument that the underlying policy is legal,” PLF attorney Michael Poon told the Washington Examiner. “The administration’s ‘lawmaking by press release’ is clearly unconstitutional.”
The first high court emergency application against Biden’s student loan relief plan was rejected by Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Oct. 20 without comment. The group that was denied, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, argued Biden was exceeding his authority to use the 2003 HEROES Act as justification for the forgiveness, a point that has been raised by many conservative and libertarian legal groups that have sued against the plan.
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A major hurdle for challengers seeking to quash Biden’s plan is finding plaintiffs with proper legal standing to challenge it.
Mark Kantrowitz, an expert on financial aid and student loans, told the Washington Examiner last month he believed if the high court took up a student loan relief challenge, it could mean “game over, I think, for the U.S. Department of Education.”
