Wisconsin taxpayers’ bid to have the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program blocked was denied by Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Thursday (October 20).
Rather than referring the matter to the full court, Barrett, who handles emergency matters arising from Wisconsin, acted solo when denying the request.
Her order was a mere one-line, which came the day after the Brown County Taxpayers Association filed an urgent request on Wednesday (October 19). In the group’s filing, they assert the Biden administration acted contrary to Congress’s exclusive spending power by enacting a nationwide debt cancellation plan.
Barrett’s decision keeps a ruling by a lower court — that prompted the group to make its urgent supplication to the Supreme Court — intact.
In an earlier ruling, a U.S. District judge in Wisconsin denied the request by the taxpayers, stating it lacked standing.
Then, the group’s request that an intermediate appeals court halt the ruling while a formal appeals process plays out was denied, causing the taxpayers to make its urgent — and unsuccessful — bid to the Supreme Court.
President Joe Biden announced borrowers could get $10,000 in federal student loan debt forgiven if they make less than $125,000 a year; that figure increased to $20,000 if the borrower was a Pell grant recipient. The Pell grant is given to students from lower-income families.
The announcement Biden made in August culminated in Wisconsin taxpayers filing a lawsuit earlier in October.
In its lawsuit, the group claims the White House doesn’t have the Constitutional power or authorization from Congress to enact the President’s sweeping debt cancellation policy, which estimates from the Congressional Budget Office show will cost approximately $400 billion over the next 30 years.
