President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness program can proceed after a judge Wednesday let a temporary restraining order on the plan expire.
It’s a minor victory for the Biden administration just weeks ahead of the presidential election. The lawsuit was brought in September by seven GOP-led states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota and Ohio — against Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
U.S. District Judge Randall Hall wrote in his order, filed in the Southern District of Georgia, that Georgia lacks standing to challenge the plan "because it failed to show an injury that is concrete, particularized, actual, or imminent."
"Without standing, the Court finds it proper to dismiss Georgia as a party to the suit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and turns to Defendants’ arguments related to venue," he wrote.
The judge also wrote that the court agrees with the federal government's argument that the venue was improper.
"Without standing, Georgia cannot provide the proper venue for suit because a plaintiff that lacks standing cannot create venue where it would not otherwise exist," he wrote.
The judge said that the "most equitable result" is to transfer the case to a district "in which venue is proper." He wrote that he would transfer the case to U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
An Education Department spokesperson said Thursday that while it appreciates the court's acknowledgment that the lawsuit has no legal basis to be brought in Georgia, "the fact remains that this lawsuit reflects an ongoing effort by Republican elected officials who want to prevent millions of their own constituents from getting breathing room on their student loans."
"The draft rules would bring the total number of borrowers eligible for student debt relief under the Biden-Harris Administration to over 30 million people," the spokesperson said. "We will continue our lawful efforts to deliver relief to more Americans, including by vigorously defending these proposals in court. We will not stop fighting to fix the broken student loan system and provide support and relief to borrowers across the country.”
The states that brought the lawsuit have argued that the administration’s rule that would mass-cancel student debt would be detrimental to income tax revenue.
Last month, Hall had extended a temporary restraining order on the plan for an additional 14 days.
The Biden administration this month will publish its final rule on the plan, which could cancel student debt for more than 25 million borrowers.
Biden laid out the revised plan in April after the Supreme Court nullified the administration’s original student debt forgiveness program last year. That plan would have benefited 43 million borrowers by canceling up to $20,000 in debt, potentially costing more than $400 billion.
The states sued the administration last month after it said over the summer that it would begin contacting all borrowers with at least one outstanding federally held student loan about their relief options. If the administration’s proposed rules are finalized this fall, it would bring the total number of recipients of student debt relief under Biden's tenure to 30 million, the Education Department said in August.
