The Justice Department on Monday defended the legality of President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, while a court weighs in on an effort by six Republican-led states to block the action.
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday temporarily blocked Biden’s plan while it considers an appeal from Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina, which are challenging a district court’s ruling that threw out their case.
The Justice Department wrote a brief to the court, arguing the lawsuit is “based on speculation about possible downstream economic effects” of the action, and called on the court to allow the administration to continue its work on the program in the meantime, according to CNN.
The department added that Education Secretary Miguel Cardona was within his right to act invoke the 2003 Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act “to prevent pandemic-induced harm to lower-income student-loan borrowers.”
The act, which was passed in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, allows the education secretary to alter student financial assistance programs in the event of “a war or other military operation or national emergency.”
“Congress hardly could have expressed more clearly its intent to give the Secretary maximum flexibility to ensure borrowers are not worse off financially because of a national emergency,” the Justice Department added.
The six states lost the original lawsuit, as U.S. District Judge Henry…
