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Eleven GOP attorneys general have filed a lawsuit to block SAVE’s student loan repayment plan.
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A district judge in Kansas ruled that only three of those states can file a lawsuit.
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Still, their case is weak, the judge said.
Student loan borrowers who signed up for President Joe Biden’s new repayment plan may have received some relief from legal challenges.
In March, 11 GOP attorneys general in Kansas filed a lawsuit to block SAVE’s means-tested repayment, arguing that the plan — which gives borrowers lower monthly payments and a shorter timeline for debt relief — violates the decision of the Supreme Court last summer to block Biden’s broad debt cancellation plan.
The states asked the court to halt the implementation of the SAVE plan. Judge Daniel Crabtree of Kansas issued his answer on June 7, saying that only three states – South Carolina, Texas and Alaska – “just narrowly” have the ability to prove that the SAVE plan will reduce their states’ revenues.
To prove standing, plaintiffs must show that they would be injured by the policy, that the injury was directly traceable to the defendant, and that the damages they seek would cure those injuries. Crabtree wrote that the three states’ position is “weaker than the one that prevailed” at the Supreme Court.
Crabtree also said the other eight plaintiffs’ argument that the SAVE plan relief would undermine their recruitment efforts through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program has not and will not hold up in court.
“No court has ever adopted this theory, and this court does not want to be the first,” he wrote. “These prosecutors simply have no skin in the game. Their response to Justice Scalia’s informal expression of status – what is it to you? – is this: it is nothing.’
Crabtree explained how this case differs from Biden v. Nebraska, the case that went before the Supreme Court. In Biden v. Nebraska, plaintiffs argued that Biden’s then-plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year would hurt the student loan company MOHELA because it would no longer be able to collect income from repaying forgiven debts. loans.
In the event that SAVE is blocked, the states do not claim that they would lose money from repaying loans. Instead, they argue that SAVE would cost them interest income because borrowers would have an incentive to consolidate private loans into direct loans, making the federal government their sole lender.
Biden’s efforts to alleviate student debt are no strangers to legal challenges. In April, another seven GOP attorneys general filed a separate lawsuit to block SAVE, and in October, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed a lawsuit on behalf of conservative groups, the Cato Institue and Mackinac Center for Public Policy, to block the one-time to block action by the Ministry of Education. account adjustments.
Regarding the latter case, the Sixth Circuit in May rejected the groups’ call to block the bill adjustments, saying their argument that the relief would undermine PSLF recruitment was “unpersuasive and illogical.”
The Ministry of Education has maintained that its relief efforts are in accordance with the law. The country is also in the process of implementing a broader student loan forgiveness plan to replace the one struck down by the Supreme Court, which will also likely lead to lawsuits.
Read the original article on Business Insider
