President Joe Biden asks Supreme Court to lift injunction on student debt relief program

The Biden administration approached the Supreme Court and asked them to lift the injunction on Biden’s student debt relief program.

The Justice Department filed the request with Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who is in charge of managing emergency motions involving the St. Louis-based Eighth Circuit, which slapped a preliminary injunction on the program on Monday.

“The Eighth Circuit’s erroneous injunction leaves millions of economically vulnerable borrowers in limbo, uncertain about the size of their debt and unable to make financial decisions with an accurate understanding of their future repayment obligations,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in Friday’s filing with the Supreme Court.

Prelogar added that if the Supreme Court refuses their request to lift the injunction, then they would consider filing their request as a petition to the high court to hear out their appeal of the decision made by the lower court.

Biden’s student debt program was challenged by Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina.

Kavanaugh asked the aforementioned states to respond by noon on November 23. Kavanagh can then then either make the decision to lift the injunction himself, or refer the matter to the full court.

The program is currently being challenged in the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals after a Texas judge ruled Biden had violated his executive authority and commandeered Congress’ lawmaking powers by ordering it.

Monthly payments and interest collection for the majority of federal student loans have remained on ice since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The White House has until the end of this year to decide whether to keep payments on hold or whether to proceed with collections again. The White House has made the decision to pause payments several times since Biden took office.