UPDATE: Lawsuit pushing back on Biden student loan forgiveness files for permanent injunction

Last Tuesday, Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) filed a motion for a permanent injunction pending an appeal with the Supreme Court after its lawsuit against the Department of Education (DOEd) was dismissed by a federal judge. 

In a press release, PLF criticized the DOEd’s previous handling of the Biden Administration’s new program, saying the DOEd “relied on ever-evolving press releases and webpages…[that have] changed on the fly to avoid legal challenge.”

PLF’s statement called on the Supreme Court to prevent “mischief from future administrations.”

“The Court must not allow the administration to skirt judicial review,” the announcement read. “If this program is permitted to go into effect without scrutiny from the courts, it will invite similar mischief from future administrations on myriad other issues.”

Campus Reform spoke with the lead attorney, Caleb Kruckenberg, about the case. 

He explained that the same day the original lawsuit was filed, President Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced that there was another option for individuals already enrolled in student loan forgiveness programs. 

[RELATED: WATCH: Biden’s student loan policy:’it needs to be paid for somehow’]

“[L]ater that day, the administration or the Department of Education, put a line on their website saying that an opt-out process was coming in and so basically what they did is they tried to stop the lawsuit by changing the policy with respect to our client,” Kruckenberg said.

After finding an additional client, Noel Johnson, and “fil[ing] on behalf of a class of borrowers,” PLF filed again against the Biden Administration but was dismissed a second time by a federal judge due to not enough grounds to show “ongoing harm.”

“[N]ow we’ve gone to the Supreme Court, asking for them to put a stop to it and I think both the district court and the Seventh Circuit were really wrong about what’s going on,” Kruckenberg stated. 

“And I think they were rewarding the Department of Education for playing games…I mean, they’ve [made] lots of effort [during] this case to try to change the program just enough to avoid review while still getting whatever they want through.”

Kruckenberg also addressed the significance of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals granting a temporary injunction to prevent the new student loan program from going into effect, but noted the injunction was only a short-term solution.

[RELATED: University endowments may be used to offset student loan debt]

“[T]he problem with that and our concern there is what the Eighth Circuit said is they said we are putting an administrative stay on this program while we consider a motion for an injunction pending appeal. The court is going to issue a decision any day,” he said. “The court could say, ‘we agree this is unlawful, we’re going to issue an injunction’…or they could deny it.” 

Currently, PLF is waiting on a response from the Supreme Court, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett determining the next step in the process. 

Campus Reform previously covered the lawsuit when it was filed on Sept. 27 by PLF on behalf of Frank Garrison, an attorney with student loans living in one of several states that consider student loans a taxable income. 

The lawsuit also criticized the use of the HEROES Act.

“The debt cancellation is not justified by the HEROES Act because, among other reasons, the cancellation is neither ‘necessary,’ nor is it targeted at harms that are ‘a direct result of a . . . national emergency,’ PLF argued. “[T]he major questions doctrine requires a clear authorization by Congress of such an economically and politically significant action, which is lacking here.”

Campus Reform contacted the White House, the Supreme Court, and the Department of Education. This article will be updated accordingly. 

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