Skip to main content

Lawsuit Seeks to Block Biden’s Debt-Relief Plan

The Pacific Legal Foundation is suing to block the Biden administration’s debt-relief plan.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in a U.S. district court, alleges that the plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for eligible Americans violates federal law as well as the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers provisions. This is the first lawsuit to challenge the plan, though more challenges are expected.

“Nothing about loan cancellation is lawful or appropriate,” the lawsuit says. “In an end-run around Congress, the administration threatens to enact a profound and transformational policy that will have untold economic impacts. The administration’s lawless action should be stopped immediately.”

The foundation also has filed a temporary restraining order to prevent the program from going into effect. The department is expected to open the application for debt relief in early October.

The nonprofit legal organization is representing Frank Garrison, one of its lawyers, in the suit. Because Garrison lives in Indiana, one of the states that’s taxing loan forgiveness, the lawsuit says he would face a tax penalty under the plan and that gives him standing to sue. Garrison is part of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which wipes out existing debt after 10 years. That program is not taxed at the state or federal level. Currently, forgiven student loans will be taxed in seven states unless lawmakers change state law.

The U.S. Department of Education general counsel wrote in a legal memo that the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 allowed for a targeted loan cancellation program “directed at addressing the financial harms of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The 2003 law was passed after the Sept. 11 attacks and gives the secretary of education authority to forgive student loans during specific periods such as a war or national emergency.

The lawsuit argues that the cancellation plan isn’t necessary to mitigate the economic effects of the pandemic.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday that borrowers are allowed to opt out of forgiveness.

“Opponents of the Biden-Harris administration student loan plan are trying to stop it because they know it will provide much-needed relief for working families,” Jean-Pierre said.

Ad keywords: 
administrators
studentaid
Is this diversity newsletter?: 
Hide by line?: 
Disable left side advertisement?: 
Is this Career Advice newsletter?: 
Trending: 
Live Updates: 
liveupdates0


Udimi - Buy Solo Ads from Inside Higher Ed https://ift.tt/uX3eUZS
via IFTTT

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Author discusses book on grad school

Graduate school is a great mystery to students, and to some faculty members, says Jessica McCrory Calarco, the author of A Field Guide to Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum (Princeton University Press). Calarco is an associate professor of sociology at Indiana University. She believes many faculty members (as well as graduate students, of course) will benefit from her book. She responded to questions via email. Q: How did you get the idea to write this book? Why did the issue speak to you? A: This book started as a tweet . Or, rather, as a series of tweets about the hidden curriculum of higher ed. Ph.D. student Kristen K. Smith had tweeted about the need to better educate undergrads about grad school opportunities, and it made me think about how opportunities in academe are often hidden from grad students, as well. Reflecting on my own experiences in grad school, I thought about the many times I'd found myself embarrassed because of what I didn't know -- the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Live Updates: Latest News on COVID-19 and Higher Education

Image:  Woman Charged With Faking Positive COVID-19 Test From U of Iowa   Nov. 5, 6:14 a.m. A lawyer in Colorado has been charged with faking a positive COVID-19 test from the University of Iowa to get out of a court appearance, The Gazette reported.   Emily Elizabeth Cohen was booked Tuesday on a detainer from the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, shortly after she tweeted that the Colorado court system “just had me arrested alleging I lied about having COVID. Tweeting from cop car.”   The Boulder Daily Camera reported that Cohen is scheduled for a 10-day trial in Boulder County in Colorado starting Dec. 6 for 11 felony counts stemming from allegations she collected fees from immigrant families before losing contact with them without producing visas or work permits.   -- Scott Jaschik Judge Permits Suit Against Montana State to Go to Trial Nov. 3, 6:18 a.m. A Montana judge has ruled that a suit against Montana State University over the sh...
Post a Comment
Read more

Guest Blog: Where Does the Bizarre Hysteria About “Critical Race Theory” Come From?—Follow the Money!

Blog:  Just Visiting Guest Blog: Where Does the Bizarre Hysteria About “Critical Race Theory” Come From?—Follow the Money! By Isaac Kamola Trinity College Hartford, CT There are now numerous well-documented examples of wealthy right-wing and libertarian donors using that wealth to transform higher education in their own image. Between 2005 and 2019, for example, the Charles Koch Foundation has spent over  $485 million  at more than 550 universities. As demonstrated by Douglas Beets and others, many of these grants include considerable  donor influence  over what gets taught, researched, and even who gets hired. It should therefore come as no surprise that conservative megadonor, Walter Hussman Jr.,  lobbied hard  to deny the Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones a tenured professorship at the UNC journalism school that bears his name. Nor that her offer of tenure, awarded through the normal channels of faculty governan...
Post a Comment
Read more