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Student Loan Forgiveness Plan Blocked Temporarily by Appeals Court

Biden's debt relief plan has been paused by a federal appeals court as it considers a challenge by six Republican-led states.

Headshot of Edward Moyer
Headshot of Edward Moyer
Edward Moyer Former Senior Editor
Ed is a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world who enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch. For more than a quarter of a century, he's edited and written stories about various aspects of the technology world, from the US National Security Agency's controversial spying techniques to historic NASA space missions to 3D-printed works of fine art. Before that, he wrote about movies, musicians, artists and subcultures. Outside of work, he has a weakness for gardens and parks, and for 18th and 19th century novels (and more recent ones as well).
Credentials
  • Ed was a member of the CNET crew that won a National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors for general excellence online. He's also edited pieces that've nabbed prizes from the Society of Professional Journalists and others.
Edward Moyer
2 min read
Biden stands at a lectern, in front of screens showing facts about the student loan forgiveness program.

President Joe Biden on Oct. 17, announcing the launch of the official application for student loan forgiveness.

 Bonnie Cash/Getty Images

The Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan has been put on hold by a federal appeals court as it considers a challenge to the program by six Republican-led states. The temporary halt prevents the government from erasing any debt, which it had said it could've started doing as soon as Sunday.

A district court dismissed the Republican states' case on Thursday for lack of standing, but on Friday, the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit granted a stay in response to an appeal by those states. The government has until Monday to respond to the states' appeal, and the states have until Tuesday to reply to the government's response.

The Biden administration's plan would forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year (or $250,000 for married couples). Recipients of a Pell Grant for low-income students would have $20,000 of debt erased.

US President Joe Biden put the student loan forgiveness plan in place with an August executive order. The administration pointed to the COVID pandemic and to a federal law it says empowers the education secretary to lessen the burden that borrowers may suffer as the result of a national emergency.

The Republican-led states -- Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina -- argue that the Biden administration overstepped its legal authority and that the plan would injure them financially. The district court judge dismissed their case, saying the states hadn't shown how the program would directly harm them.

Friday's appeals court order "does not reverse the trial court's dismissal of the case, or suggest that the case has merit. It merely prevents debt from being discharged until the court makes a decision," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

Jean-Pierre urged borrowers to continue applying for loan forgiveness via the application, which went live Monday. She said 22 million people have already applied and that the order from the appeals court "does not prevent us from reviewing these applications and preparing them for transmission to loan servicers."

About the Author

Headshot of Edward Moyer
Former Senior Editor
Former Senior Editor

Ed is a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world who enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch. For more than a quarter of a century, he's edited and written stories about various aspects of the technology world, from the US National Security Agency's controversial spying techniques to historic NASA space missions to 3D-printed works of fine art. Before that, he wrote about movies, musicians, artists and subcultures. Outside of work, he has a weakness for gardens and parks, and for 18th and 19th century novels (and more recent ones as well).