The Supreme Court will decide whether the Biden administration acted lawlessly when it authorized the cancellation of hundreds of billions of dollars in student loans. The high court announced on Thursday that it would expedite an appeal brought by the Biden administration challenging a lower court’s injunction freezing its loan “forgiveness” program, promising a hearing in February on the issues.
Until then, the Supreme Court will let stand the injunction the Eighth Circuit issued in Nebraska v. Biden. That injunction prevents the Biden administration from cancelling student loans of up to $20,000 per borrower, pending resolution of the legal challenge to the debt-forgiveness plan brought by six states: Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina.
In petitioning the Supreme Court for relief, the Biden administration initially sought an order vacating the Eighth Circuit’s injunction, but the administration argued alternatively that, if the high court declined to dissolve the injunction, it should instead hear the case on appeal on an expedited schedule. The Supreme Court’s decision to take the case on appeal presents a unique situation, given that the Eighth Circuit has not yet addressed the merits of the states’ lawsuit.
