A Texas judge appointed by former President Donald Trump ruled Thursday that Biden’s plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt was illegal and should be scrapped. The Biden administration is appealing the decision. “Courts have issued orders blocking the student debt relief program. As a result, we are currently not accepting applications. We are seeking to overturn those orders. If you have already applied, we will hold your application,” says notice. About 26 million Americans have applied for student loan forgiveness, and the US Department of Education has already approved requests from 16 million. [1/2] A graduating student waits for the start of the commencement ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., May 27, 2022. REUTERS/Brian Snyder The appeal will first be heard by a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, a court dominated by conservative justices who have blocked other Biden policies. Of the court’s 16 active justices, only four were appointed by Democratic presidents. Trump appointed six of them. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that the department would retain information on the requests “so that we can quickly process their relief once we prevail in court.” U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, a Fort Worth appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, called the program an “unconstitutional exercise of congressional legislative power” by Biden as he ruled in favor of two borrowers backed by a conservative advocacy group. The case could eventually end up in the US Supreme Court. Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett has already rejected two requests to block the program in lawsuits from Indiana and Wisconsin, two states from which she is tasked with evaluating emergency appeals. Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru and Nate Raymond in Boston. Edited by Heather Timmons, Chizu Nomiyama and Aurora Ellis Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Nate Raymond Thomson Reuters Nate Raymond reports on the federal judiciary and litigation. He can be reached at [email protected]
