US federal judge dismisses challenge to Biden’s student loan debt relief plan News
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US federal judge dismisses challenge to Biden’s student loan debt relief plan

A federal judge Thursday dismissed a Republican-led challenge to President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt. US District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri Henry Autrey the claim brought by Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina for lack of standing.

Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina attempt to assert a threat of imminent harm in the form of lost tax revenue. Each of those states contended that they plan on taxing federal student loan discharges. Autrey found that this future harm, a required element of standing, was too speculative to grant standing to the states.

Missouri received the lengthiest discussion in Autrey’s opinion. Missouri alleged that their state student loan servicer, the Higher Education Loan Authority of the State of Missouri (MOHELA), would potentially lose income, and student loan cancellation would deprive the loan servicer of interest payments, which would harm the servicer’s ability to issue bonds and access debt markets because “the entity uses the income it receives from the student loans as security for bond payments.” Arkansas had a similar argument, claiming that their injury suffered was their state loan servicer’s lost revenue. The judge rejected each state’s argument and found neither had standing

The Wisconsin-based Brown County Taxpayers Association petitioned the US Supreme Court with a similar request. Justice Amy Coney Barrett dismissed the group’s claims for lack of standing.

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