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The Biden administration has stopped accepting applications for federal student loan forgiveness after a court struck down the plan on Thursday evening.
“Courts have issued orders blocking our student debt relief program,” according to a note on the forgiveness application page at Studentaid.gov. “As a result, at this time, we are not accepting applications. We are seeking to overturn those orders.”
The suspension of the forgiveness program comes shortly after a federal judge in Texas rejected President Joe Biden’s executive action in August to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for tens of millions of Americans.
“In this country, we are not ruled by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a phone,” wrote Judge Mark Pittman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, in his 26-page decision. Pittman, who was appointed in 2019 by former President Donald Trump, sided with the Job Creators Network Foundation, a conservative advocacy group.
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The group had called Biden’s plan “irrational, arbitrary and unfair,” and accused the president of overreaching his authority. Their complaint argued that the White House ignored federal procedures by not seeing public comment on its program.
The Biden administration said the Justice Department has already appealed the decision.
“We believe strongly that the Biden-Harris Student Debt Relief Plan is lawful and necessary to give borrowers and working families breathing room as they recover from the pandemic and to ensure they succeed when repayment restarts,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. “Amidst efforts to block our debt relief program, we are not standing down.”
Obstacles for Biden’s forgiveness plan mount
The president’s student loan forgiveness plan was already on hold from a challenge brought by six Republican-led states — Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina — which also accused the president of overstepping his authority.
A federal judge rejected the states lawsuit, saying that while they raised “important and significant challenges to the debt relief plan,” they ultimately lacked legal standing to pursue the case.
The main obstacle for those hoping to bring a legal challenge against Biden’s plan has been finding a plaintiff who can prove they’ve been harmed by the policy.
“Such injury is needed to establish what courts call ‘standing,'” said Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor.
The GOP-led states didn’t give up after their lawsuit was thrown out. They filed an appeal, and asked the court to stay the president’s plan, which was supposed to start unfolding in October, while their request is considered.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the states’ emergency petition, leaving the Biden administration unable to start forgiving any student debt.
However, the Education Department had encouraged borrowers to continue applying for forgiveness since its plan had not yet been struck down.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.