Judge allows Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan to go into effect

(Gray News) – A judge's decision allowed a Department of Education student loan forgiveness program to take effect by allowing a temporary restraining order to expire Wednesday.

A lawsuit filed in September by Missouri, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota and Ohio sought to stop the plan, with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and President Joe Biden listed as defendants.

The states had argued that the Biden administration's plan to forgive tens of millions of Americans' student loans en masse was illegal and would hurt states through lost tax revenue.

Judge J. Randall Hall said Georgia did not have standing to review the case, which was filed in the District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.

“Without standing, Georgia cannot provide appropriate venue for the action because a plaintiff without standing cannot create venue that would not otherwise exist,” Wednesday’s decision said.

The judge allows the case to be transferred to a Missouri court.

The plans “would provide debt relief for over 30 million Americans when combined with actions the Biden-Harris administration has already taken to cancel student debt over the past three years,” the administration said in announcing the plan April explained.

The new plan was released in response to a Supreme Court decision last year that blocked originally proposed student debt relief. The Supreme Court had ruled 6-3 that the original plan constituted an abuse of executive power.

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