Biden's student loan handout survives legal challenge by Republican-led states
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett declined to hear another case that would have blocked the program
Heritage Foundation research fellow Joel Griffith discusses how the White House is scaling back on their massive student loan handout over legal challenges on ‘Fox Business Tonight.’
A federal judge in Missouri dismissed a challenge to President Biden's $400 billion student loan handout that was brought by a group of conservative state attorneys general.
Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and South Carolina filed the lawsuit last month, accusing the Biden administration of circumventing Congress and lacking the proper authority to cancel up to $10,000 in debt for individuals making less than $125,000 a year.
Activists attend a rally outside of the White House to call on U.S. President Joe Biden to cancel student debt on July 27, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images / Getty Images)
U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey wrote that the states raised "important and significant challenges to the debt relief plan," but don't have legal standing.
STUDENT LOAN RELIEF APPLICATION NOW OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE THROUGH ONLINE PORTAL
The ruling came about one hour after Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett declined to block the student loan plan in a challenge that was brought by a Wisconsin taxpayers organization.
Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, which will also cancel up to $20,000 in debt for Pell grant recipients, will cost more than $400 billion, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks regarding student loan debt forgiveness in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre accused Republican lawmakers and governors of "doing everything they can to deny student debt relief even to their own constituents" after the lawsuit in Missouri was dismissed on Thursday evening.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, an official who joined Missouri and other states in the lawsuit, pledged to "immediately appeal" the decision.
Reuters contributed to this report.