Ian Patrick, FISM News
The Wisconsin group who requested that the Supreme Court pause Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan was dealt a blow yesterday from Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
On Thursday, with no explanation or referral to the full court, Barrett refused the emergency appeal from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) asking for the loan forgiveness plan to be paused pending a lower court ruling on the same program.
Typically it is standard procedure to dismiss appeals without commenting on them, according to The Daily Wire. However, the New York Times hypothesized that Barrett “most likely rejected the application because the plaintiff … did not appear to have shown that it had suffered a direct injury that gave it standing to sue.”
According to the Times, Barrett’s solo action in denying the appeal indicates that it didn’t have enough solid legal ground to stand in court.
WILL brought a case against the plan on behalf of the Brown County Taxpayers Association (BCTA), arguing that Biden’s decision to “forgive” up to $10,000 in federal student loan debts and $20,000 in Pell grants is “unconstitutional.” They argued that by spending massive amounts of taxpayers’ dollars without going through Congress, Biden subverted the legislative branch’s exclusive power to spend taxpayer money.
Prior to Barrett’s refusal to take up the case, BCTA President, Rich Heidel, commented on the plan asking “What Constitutional power does Biden have to take John Q. Public’s money and pay Jane Q. Public’s school loans?”
“This nonsense not only defies the US Constitution – it defies common sense,” Heidel added.
The lawsuit was previously dismissed in a lower court in Wisconsin as well. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Judge William C. Griesbach said in his opinion that even the “Supreme Court has repeatedly held … that the payment of taxes is generally not enough to establish standing to challenge an action taken by the Federal Government.”
This decision is currently waiting to be ruled on in an appeals court.
The lawsuit is not the only legal challenge against the school debt plan. The states of Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina have also joined forces to sue over the program, but were also recently rebuffed.
According to reports from Reuters, U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey in St. Louis, Missouri stated that the Republican-led states brought good concerns before the court but also lacked legal standing to pursue the case. This ruling came an hour after Barrett’s ruling on the WILL case.