Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Thursday denied a request from a Wisconsin taxpayer group to halt the implementation of President Joe Biden’s federal student loan forgiveness program.
Barrett, who is Wisconsin’s emergency claims manager, denied the Brown County Taxpayers Association’s request to block the program just days after the Biden administration began accepting requests from borrowers to cancel until $20,000 in student debt.
The emergency request was filed on Wednesday.
Barrett appeared to act alone without referring the case to the other judges. She did not provide an explanation for the denial of the emergency request, which is not uncommon.
The taxpayer group had argued in a 29-page Supreme Court filing that Biden’s program would cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion and bypasses Congress, which oversees federal spending.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated last month that Biden’s plan would cost $400 billion, while the Department of Education said the price would be closer to $379 billion.
Rick Esenberg, an attorney representing the taxpayers’ group in the lawsuit who is also president and general counsel of the right-wing Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, said in a statement Thursday that he hopes further legal challenges to the program will succeed. .
“We are well aware of the ongoing challenges that exist to stop a clearly unconstitutional order. Our case has taken an approach to address this challenge,” Esenberg said. “Others will adopt different arguments and we hope that one of them will succeed so that the American people can have the legality of this program reviewed by the courts.
Late last month, the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative-leaning law firm, sued the administration on behalf of one of its employees, Indiana-based attorney Frank Garrison.
Two days after that complaint was filed, officials in six Republican-led states filed a lawsuit to block the program. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit on Thursday.
Biden’s student debt relief program would provide up to $10,000 in debt forgiveness for borrowers earning less than $125,000 a year and couples who file taxes jointly and earn less than $250,000 a year . Pell Grant recipients, who make up the majority of borrowers, would be eligible for additional debt relief of $10,000. The overall program is expected to help more than 40 million borrowers, the administration said.
Rebecca Shabad contributed.