Supreme Court nominee and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Capitol Hill in Washington on October 21, 2020.
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On Wednesday, the Supreme Court was asked to block the Biden administration’s student loan debt relief program, which goes into effect this weekend.
Wisconsin’s Brown County Taxpayers Association directed an emergency petition to delay the implementation of the debt relief program to Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who handles rulings from the state’s 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. such requests.
An emergency document filed by the association calls for a moratorium on President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for millions of borrowers while the lawsuit unfolds. A Biden administration could begin processing student loan forgiveness requests from borrowers as early as this Sunday.
The U.S. Department of Education opened student loan forgiveness applications in beta testing on Friday, with more than 8 million people filing for forgiveness over the weekend. The app officially launched on Monday.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Legal Challenges Against Student Loan Forgiveness
Legal challenges to the president’s plan continue to mount.
Six states led by the Republican Party — Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina — are trying to block Biden’s plan, arguing that the president has no power without Congress issued nationwide debt relief. They also claim the policy would hurt private companies servicing some federal student loans by reducing business.
Earlier this month, a federal judge dismissed the Brown County Taxpayers Association’s lawsuit against the Biden administration, arguing that it was ineligible to challenge.
For those looking to block the president’s actions, the main hurdle is finding a plaintiff who can prove they were harmed by the policy. “This kind of harm is needed to establish what the court calls ‘status’,” said Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribb.
The tribe said he does not believe any of the lawsuits filed so far have succeeded in doing so.
This is a developing story. Check for updates.