Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Thursday rejected a challenge to President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan, Politico reports.
Biden earlier this year announced a plan to forgive up to $10,000 in student debt for most borrowers and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.
The Brown County Taxpayers Association, a Wisconsin conservative group, filed a lawsuit seeking to challenge the plan on behalf of “taxpayers.”
The group lost in district court because they did not have standing and an appellate court upheld the decision.
Barrett, who oversees the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, on Thursday rejected the group’s attempt to challenge the plan before the Supreme Court.
Second case:
A federal judge in Missouri also dismissed a lawsuit brought by six Republican-led states — Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina — on Thursday.
The states argued that the policy was unconstitutional and claimed the plan would cause them harm because of lost tax revenue and other losses from federal student loans that states manage.
U.S. District Judge Henry Edward Autrey, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that the states failed to show that they have standing to challenge the plan and that their claims of harms were “merely speculative.”
“While Plaintiffs present important and significant challenges to the debt relief plan, the current Plaintiffs are unable to proceed to the resolution of these challenges,” he wrote in a decision.
White House gloats:
White House chief of staff touted the Missouri decision as “another court win” for Biden’s plan.
Biden is scheduled to travel to Delaware State University to promote the plan on Friday.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to say whether the administration has contingency plans in case a lawsuit is successful in blocking the policy.
“There are opponents out there who are trying to take away what we’re trying to do, what the President is trying to do for the middle class,” she told reporters.
