Supreme Court nominee and U.S. Court of Appeals judge Amy Coney Barrett on Capitol Hill in Washington on Oct. 21, 2020.
Ken Cedeno | Reuters
The Supreme Court was asked on Wednesday to block the Biden administration’s student loan debt relief program, which is set to take effect this weekend.
The Brown County Taxpayers Association, a Wisconsin group, directed the emergency request to delay the implementation of the debt relief plan to Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who is responsible for handling such requests from the Seventh Circuit of Federal Appeals, which contains this state.
The association’s emergency filing calls for suspending President Joe Biden’s plan to write off up to $20,000 in student debt for millions of borrowers while their lawsuit plays out. The Biden administration could begin processing borrowers’ applications for student loan forgiveness as soon as this Sunday.
The U.S. Department of Education opened its student loan forgiveness application in a beta test on Friday, and more than 8 million people applied for relief over the weekend. The app was officially launched on Monday.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Legal challenges to student loan forgiveness
Legal challenges that have been filed against the president’s plan continue to mount.
Six Republican-led states — Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina — are trying to block Biden’s plan, arguing that the president doesn’t have the power to issue nationwide debt relief without the congress They also claim the policy would hurt private companies that service some federal student loans by reducing their business.
A federal judge earlier this month dismissed the Brown County Taxpayers Association’s lawsuit against the Biden administration, finding it lacked standing to file its challenge.
The main hurdle for those hoping to thwart the president’s action is finding a plaintiff who can show they have been harmed by the policy. “This injury is necessary to establish what the courts call ‘standing,'” said Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor.
Tribe said it is not convinced that any of the current lawsuits filed have successfully done so.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.