[co-author: Kerry Mackenzie]
On Thursday, October 20, the Biden-Harris Administration’s Student Debt Relief Program prevailed in two early legal cases challenging the plan. Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied an emergency bid to obstruct the program from a Wisconsin conservative group, while a federal judge in Missouri dismissed a challenge to the plan by six Republican-led states.
Justice Barrett, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, delivered a one-line dismissal in response to the Brown County Taxpayers Association’s petition alleging that the Biden-Harris administration’s debt cancellation program illegally infringed on Congress’s exclusive spending power. The case arrived at Justice Barrett’s desk as an emergency matter, which requires only a single Justice assigned to the region to rule on it after a lower court found that the group lacked standing to sue. The Biden-Harris administration responded that the program is authorized by the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act (H.R. 1412).
U.S. District Judge Henry Edward Autrey, a President George W. Bush appointee, made a similar ruling in a Missouri challenge to the program. Judge Autrey found that the legal objection, which was brought forth by six Republican attorneys general in Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina, did not propose the type of harm needed for the case to be heard in federal court. The attorneys general argued that the Student Debt Relief Plan would cause their states economic injuries, including lost tax revenue, but Judge Autrey found that these harms were not significant enough to warrant legal action.
Although more legal challenges to the program are expected, the legal system has thus far ruled in favor of the Biden-Harris administration’s authority to carry out its Student Debt Relief Plan, which recently launched its application. The administration has stated that they will not begin discharging debt until Sunday, October 23, in the hope that most court cases involving the program will be resolved.
