On Friday (November 4), an emergency effort to halt President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan was denied by Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Barrett’s Friday ruling, the second such ruling the Justice made in recent weeks, came following the emergency filing by the libertarian group Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF).
Barrett, who acted alone and didn’t refer it to the full court, gave a one-line order denying PLF’s request to block Biden’s student debt cancellation program.
The libertarian group was the first to challenge the President’s student loan forgiveness plan in court. The filing it made in September was done on behalf of one of the group’s attorneys and argued that Biden’s student forgiveness plan would irreparably harm one of its attorneys, Frank Garrison, by forcing him to pay tax on the forgiven student loan debt.
A federal judge denied PLF’s challenge following a note the Education Department added to its website, explaining that borrowers could opt out of student loan forgiveness. The judge, however, allowed the group to amend its complaint.
In its amended complaint, PLF added a second plaintiff, Neil Johnson, making it a filing a class-action lawsuit.
The filing was dismissed by the district judge, who ruled neither Garrison nor Johnson had standing, prompting the group to approach the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
When the 7th District Court of Appeals denied the group’s lawsuit for the same reason — lack of standing — they approached the Supreme Court.
Barrett, who handles emergency filings stemming from Midwestern states, had denied a similar filing made by Wisconsin taxpayers.
