Supreme Court and federal judge reject attempts to block Biden’s student debt plan

Justice Amy Coney Barrett dismissed a request to block the plan, and a federal judge in Missouri shot down a lawsuit from six Republican-led states

A federal judge in Missouri has dismissed a lawsuit from Republican officials from six states and a conservative legal group that sought to prevent President Joe Biden from implementing a sweeping student loan debt relief plan.

The ruling from US District Judge Henry Autrey on 20 October arrived shortly after the US Supreme Court dismissed an appeal in a different case seeking to block the debt cancellation plan.

The decisions mark a victory for the Biden administration and more than 40 million federal student loan borrowers eligible for up to $10,000 in canceled higher education debts, or up to $20,000 for borrowers that relied on Pell grants.

A group of Republican officials from six states argued that the Biden administration overstepped its authority and threatened the economies of states that benefit from taxes on forgiven debts.

But Judge Autrey appeared to doubt whether the plaintiffs have legal standing to sue the administration, as he heard oral arguments in the case last week.

“It is hard to make a cake if you don’t have a pan to put that cake in,” he said. “That pan is standing. It doesn’t matter if you have all the ingredients.”

The lawsuit was filed by attorneys general from GOP-led states Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina and on behalf of Iowa’s Republican governor.

President Biden, the US Department of Education and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona were named as defendants.

Millions of Americans have already submitted their applications for debt cancellation after the administration rolled out a website this week.

Borrowers earning up to $125,000, or $250,000 for married couples, are eligible for up to $10,000 of their federal student loans to be wiped out, or up to $20,000 if they received Pell grants.

Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett also rejected a separate emergency request from the Wisconsin-based Brown County Taxpayers Association, which also argued that the Biden administration overstepped its authority.

Lawyers representing the group argued in an emergency request to the high court that there is “no legal justification for this presidential usurpation of the constitutional spending power, which is reserved exclusively for Congress.”

“The assault on our separation of powers – and upon the principle that the spending power is vested solely in Congress – is extraordinary, and perhaps unprecedented,” according to the lawyers.

Justice Barrett, without referring to the other justices, summarily denied the request.

Thus far, none of the several GOP-mounted legal challenges facing the Biden administration’s student loan debt plan have survived.

In remarks to announce the launch of a website for debt relief applications on 17 October, Mr Biden called Republican “outrage” against the plan “wrong and hypocritical”.

“Republican members of Congress and Republican governors are trying to do everything they can to deny this relief, even to their own constituents,” he said.

“I will never apologize for helping working Americans and middle-class people as they recover from the pandemic – especially to the same Republicans who voted for a $2 trillion tax cut,” the president added, referencing cuts approved by congressional Republicans and Donald Trump in 2017.

Republicans “didn’t pay for a penny of it and racked up the deficit,” Mr Biden said.

He also condemned Republican officials who have criticised the student debt plan while accepting “hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars” in aid through forgivable federal loans approved by Congress during the pandemic.

The student loan debt crisis has exploded to a total balance of nearly $2 trillion, mostly wrapped up in federal loans. Millions of Americans also continue to tackle accrued interest without chipping away at their principal balances years after graduating, or have been forced to leave their colleges or universities without obtaining a degree at all while still facing loan repayments.

A pandemic-era pause on student loan repayment and interest will expire on 31 December, with payments to resume on 1 January.