The Supreme Court turned down President Biden’s appeal on Thursday, putting the matter on hold for months while announcing that they will expedite it for their docket.
The administration had hoped that the justices would permit the plan to go into force as the cases proceed through a number of challenges in lower courts, but the high court dashed those dreams.
The judges “delayed” Mr. Biden’s motion until oral argument in a succinct order, they stated. They instructed the court’s February session, which runs from February 21 to March 1, to be the date set for the case’s oral argument. A decision would be made by the end of June as a result.
According to press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, “this program is essential to assist nearly 40 million qualified Americans laboring under the weight of student loan debt recover from the pandemic and move forward with their lives.” In addition, the initiative is lawful, according to a thorough study by administration lawyers. The Biden plan has been rejected by a number of lower courts, which has prevented it from fully taking effect.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced on Wednesday that it would not stay an injunction issued by a federal judge in Texas, which was the most recent of these decisions. The Supreme Court’s decision to turn down the Biden team’s plea was welcomed by the president’s opponents.
Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, declared that President Biden’s proposal was unlawful. “I’m glad to see the Court will soon have the chance to ensure not one taxpayer dollar is used in support of this student loan scheme,” she added. Meanwhile, liberal groups were in a state of shock by the mounting number of legal setbacks and prepared for more bad news from the Supreme Court.
According to Liz Zelnick, a representative for Accountable.US, “the right-leaning Supreme Court now hangs in the balance relief for millions of hardworking Americans who are just trying to go ahead.” “If Justices rule in favor of the special interests, it would be a huge loss for the economy.”
She referred to the legal objections to Mr. Biden’s proposal as “political lawsuits… based solely on corporate greed and obtuse partisan obstruction.”
For debtors with individual salaries of less than $125,000, or $250,000 for a couple, Mr. Biden said he wanted to cancel up to $10,000 of federal student loan debt. Relieved amounts for Pell Grant applicants might reach $20,000. The cost to the federal government was estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to be around $400 billion, or nearly 25% of the entire amount of outstanding student loan debt. According to CBO, more than 40 million people would qualify for assistance.
A 2003 federal legislation that gives the Education Department the authority to change or waive loan requirements in times of emergency was cited by Mr. Biden’s administration as giving him the authority to offer forgiveness.
The pandemic has been deemed a serious emergency by Mr. Biden. The language doesn’t cover categorical cancellation, according to opponents.
Many young people have turned student debt into a significant political issue, demanding relief from what they perceive to be a system that is biased against them.
Invoking the same federal law from 2003, federally supported student loan payments have been suspended during the pandemic. While the dispute is being litigated in court, Mr. Biden just announced another suspension of payments after indicating this autumn that they would start early next year.
In a video posted to Twitter, Mr. Biden declared, “I’m completely confident my idea is lawful.” However, it is unfair to demand that tens of millions of borrowers who qualify for relief start making payments on their student loans while the complaint is being reviewed by the courts.
A half-dozen Republican-led states have contested the debt forgiveness in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where the case that made it to the justices originated from. The appeals court rejected Mr. Biden’s proposal by siding with the states. A different case that also resulted in a loss for Mr. Biden was the 5th Circuit decision.
