Former US president Donald Trump-appointed Conservative-leaning Supreme Court judge Amy Coney Barrett on Friday rejected a second challenge to President Joe Biden’s student loan relief plan.
The student loan relief plan is yet to be implemented as an appeals court ruling put the implementation of the policy on hold. The Supreme Court did not give a reason behind the rejection of the application.
Earlier in October, the Supreme Court judge rejected a similar request.
Biden’s student debt relief program allows eligible borrowers to cancel up to $20,000 of student loan debt. It remains on hold after an appeals court stopped the implementation in a separate case.
There are also other lawsuits filed against the plan in many smaller courts across the US but the Biden administration has encouraged people to apply.
The case was brought by two Indiana-based lawyers Frank Garrison and Noel Johnson who say the plan was not authorized by the US Congress and the plan is also an abuse of presidential power. These lawyers are members of Pacific Legal Foundation and the Public Interest Legal Foundation respectively.
The plan is set to take effect this fall and the challengers argue that it violates the Constitution and federal law as it sidesteps the Congress which has the power to design laws applicable to student loan forgiveness.
The challengers, according to a report by MSNBC, face a challenge to show they have been harmed by the program in order to have legal standing to sue. These lawyers argued that they could have their loans relieved through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program cancels debt for those employed by a federal, state, local or tribal government or a not-for-profit organization.
The lawyers claimed that Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan will put both of them and millions of others in a position where they will be subject to income tax liability in Indiana and at least five other states.
The Education Department said people who did not wish to have their loans forgiven could opt out of the programme and this challenges the legal standing of Garrison and Johnson. Critics of the program accuse the Biden administration of making changes to the terms of the plan so that courts can be prevented from reaching legal merits, NBC News reported.
The debt relief program will provide up to $10,000 in debt cancellation for those who are earning less than $125,000 a year. It also applies to couples who file taxes jointly and have an annual income less than $250,000.
The recipients of the Pell Grant – who according to the NBC News report are the majority of the borrowers – will be eligible for an additional $10,000 in debt relief. The administration says it will help more than 40 million borrowers.
The plan would cost the national exchequer $400 billion according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office while the Education Department said it would cost $379 billion.
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