he legal battle plays out.
Student debt forgiveness for 40 million Americans is on hold indefinitely after another legal setback on Monday—and legal experts are warning that it’s possible the measure will be killed by the courts before anyone sees debt relief.
A federal appeals court issued a preliminary injunction on Monday preventing the program from moving forward, further delaying up to $20,000 per person in debt forgiveness. As the case moves forward, it could make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
tudent debt forgiveness for 40 million Americans is on hold indefinitely after another legal setback on Monday—and legal experts are warning that it’s possible the measure will be killed by the courts before anyone sees debt relief.
A federal appeals court issued a preliminary injunction on Monday preventing the program from moving forward, further delaying up to $20,000 per person in debt forgiveness. As the case moves forward, it could make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The new ruling on Monday, by three Republican-appointed judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis, is the result of a lawsuit by six Republican-led states, who argue that they will be harmed by lost tax revenue as a result of debt cancellation.
The states had appealed a decision by a judge who had dismissed their lawsuit, saying they lacked standing to sue.
But the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. The panel of judges has not yet ruled on the legal arguments in the case, but they concluded that Missouri, one of the six states, “likely has legal standing to bring its claim” and granted a preliminary injunction, noting that the case “will affect the finances of millions of Americans with student loan debt as well as those Americans who pay taxes to finance the government.”
The new ruling means the program will be put on hold “until further order of this court or the Supreme Court of the United States,” the judges wrote.
The decision is a significant setback to Biden’s program, which has faced a slew of legal challenges since the President announced the debt-forgiveness plan in August. Advocates for debt relief have called on the Biden Administration to extend the pandemic-related pause on student loan payments while t
While conservatives are racking up legal victories against Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan, the President and other Democrats pointed to the policy as winning with voters. Biden said student debt relief—along with climate change and gun violence—was one of the key issues that drove turnout during the 2022 midterm elections. So did Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who wrote in the New York Times that student debt forgiveness “helped motivate young people to vote in near record numbers.”