Biden student loan debt relief plan: Appeals court rules

A federal appeals court on Monday issued a nationwide injunction temporarily barring the Biden administration’s student loan debt relief program.

The ruling by 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis is the latest in a series of legal challenges to President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for millions of Americans. The Biden administration stopped accepting applications for its relief on Friday after a federal district judge in Texas struck down its plan on Thursday evening, calling it “unconstitutional.”

Monday’s decision by the appeals court came after the states of Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina argued in a lawsuit that the loan relief program threatens their future tax revenues, and that plan circumvents congressional authority.

“The injunction will remain in effect until further order of this court or the Supreme Court
of the United States,” a three-judge panel of the appeals court said in its ruling.

The injunction will put the program on hold pending an appeal of a lower court ruling that had allowed the debt relief program to go forward. The Biden administration could ask the Supreme Court to lift the injunction.