Days after the Education Department launched a beta website for Student loan debt relief applications, the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals has put a temporary hold on the program. The federal court has put an administrative hold that restricts the Joe Biden administration from forgiving student loans in the plan while it is considering a challenge.

The ruling is a result of a case by six Republican states, who have requested a preliminary injunction to stop the Biden administration plan after their case was dismissed by a district court earlier this month. Apart from the Republican case, the program is also facing a challenge from a Wisconsin taxpayers’ group which was rejected by the Supreme Court earlier.

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The appeals court has given the Biden administration until October 25 to respond to the request of the Republican states. Meanwhile, the six states have been given until October 26 to respond to the administration’s response.

As per White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the Biden administration will be moving forward in its preparations for the student loan forgiveness program in compliance with the appeals court order and fighting it legally.

“Tonight’s temporary order does not prevent borrowers from applying for student debt relief at studentaid.gov – and we encourage eligible borrowers to join the nearly 22 million Americans whose information the Department of Education already has. It also does not prevent us from reviewing these applications and preparing them for transmission to loan servicers,” the official said.

The lawsuit by the six Republican states was filed in September 2022 and was dismissed on October 20 by a district court, which said that the plaintiffs had no legal standing for the challenge. The lawsuit by the Wisconsin taxpayers’ group was rejected by the Supreme Court on the same day by Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

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Apart from these two cases, the Biden administration has received stark criticisms for the Student loan debt relief and has invited several lawsuits, by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and many conservative groups, who are claiming that the administration has no legal authority to forgive the student loans.

However, government attorneys have argued that the power to cancel student loans was given to the education secretary by Congress through the 2003 HEROES Act.