Supreme Court agrees to hear arguments on Biden’s student loan plan, closing in on a resolution
Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, an important step toward resolving a months long legal battle over whether the administration exceeded its authority when it decided to wipe out debt owed by tens of millions of Americans.
In a brief order, the high court kept the program’s implementation on pause. That means Biden will continue to be blocked from implementing loan forgiveness at least until the Supreme Court rules next year. The court said it would hear arguments in February.
Six conservative states – Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina – told the Supreme Court that Biden overstepped his legal authority with the program and violated the constitutional principle of separation of powers by embarking on a loan forgiveness program estimated to affect 40 million Americans.
sided with the states’ request to temporarily halt the program. The Biden administration appealed that decision to the Supreme Court. halted the program in a separate lawsuit. The New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit declined a request from the Biden administration to stay that decision. third time that the loan forgiveness program has come before the Supreme Court. Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied an emergency appeal from a Wisconsin taxpayer group Oct. 20. Barrett denied the request to block the program without explanation, as is often the case on the court’s emergency docket.
She denied a second challenge to the program on Nov. 4. A conservative legal group had filed an emergency appeal on behalf of two people entitled to “automatic” cancellation of their debt. The plaintiffs had claimed that the automatic cancellation of their debt would create “excess tax liability under state law.”