A day after a previous judge’s block of President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program expired, a federal judge in Missouri has blocked it again.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp, who was appointed by then-President Donald Trump, issued the latest preliminary injunction against Biden’s relief plan, once again blocking the U.S. Department of Education from forgiving student loan debt at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.
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The latest order capped 24 hours during which federal student loan holders were subjected to judicial whiplash, as a lawsuit challenging Biden’s aid package, brought by seven GOP-led states, bounced from Georgia to Missouri courts.
The states bringing the suit — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota and Ohio — allege that the U.S. Department of Education’s new debt cancellation effort is illegal.
The case was redirected to the Missouri court after a Georgia court decided it lacked standing in the case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Randal Hall in Georgia found that his state lacked standing to sue against the relief plan, and therefor his court could not be the venue for the case.
Hall directed the case to be transferred to Missouri, because the states claim that Biden’s plan would most harm student loan servicer Mohela, or the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority.
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Biden’s plan to forgive student loan debt has been repeatedly blocked, though he has openly defied the courts and moved ahead with various attempts anyway.
It is likely that any student loan forgiveness plan will actually effect until after the 2024 election, if at all.