Biden Appeals to the Supreme Court for Student-Loan Forgiveness

• Friday’s request by the Biden administration to the Supreme Court for student-debt relief was made.
• It follows Monday’s ruling by a lower federal judge that the relief was paused. 
• Biden also appealed against a Texas federal judge’s decision that blocked the relief last Wednesday.

President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan is again at the Supreme Court.

After a lower federal court stopped the program, the Department of Justice urged Friday’s nation’s highest court for the president’s plan of forgiving up to $20,000 of student debt by federal borrowers.

The FileSolicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar asks the Supreme Court for the lifting of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. rulingThe Monday ruling kept the debt relief indefinitely paused. The court had initially stopped the program from going into effect in October. However, it sided with six Republican-led States that claimed that the debt relief would reduce their state’s tax revenues and should therefore be blocked.

Prelogar stated that the 8th Circuit’s decision left millions of economically vulnerable borrowers “in limbo, uncertain as to the amount of their debt, and unable make financial decisions with an accurate understanding their future repayment obligations.”

Prelogar stated that failure to restart debt relief could lead to “severe financial implications” for borrowers at risk of defaulting on student loans. Student-loan payments will resume after December 31. 

Prelogar also wrote that the Biden administration told the Supreme Court that an appeal could be treated as a formal petition for a briefing on the dispute to “prevent prolonging this uncertainty” for millions of affected borrowers. If granted, this scenario would see the justices schedule and hear oral arguments in the case, and then give their decision. This can take many months. 

Friday’s appeal marks Biden’s third attempt to have the student-debt forgiveness program heard by the nation’s highest judiciary. In recent weeks, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett Deleted Two challengesBlock the relief.

Texas federal judge last week Also blockedBiden’s debt relief was declared illegal by the court, and the Biden administration also filed an appeal.

Biden has announced that he will cancel all of his debts once and for good in August. Number of conservative lawsuitsThey have tried to block the debt relief. It’s not clear how the Supreme Court will respond to the rulings of the lower courts that have blocked the relief.

For the moment, however, 26 million borrowers who have already applied for debt relief remain in limbo, and the Education Department indicated that it is not accepting any new applications at this time — but it remains confident that it will ultimately prevail in legal battles. It is also “Examining” Extension of the student loan payment pause to ensure that borrowers are not forced into repayment without the relief promised.