The Biden administration faces a complicated legal path for jump-starting its mass student-debt cancellation plan after a federal judge in Texas blocked it on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported. In light of the ruling, the Education Department has stopped accepting applications for the program after nearly 20 million people submitted their income information in recent weeks. The administration immediately moved to appeal the decision and could file a motion that seeks to stay the Texas ruling for now. But even if that request were successful, the White House is still facing a roadblock in a separate case pending in a different jurisdiction. The St. Louis-based Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already had placed the program on hold in a temporary order last month, in a case brought by Republican officials in six states. An additional ruling from that court is expected in the coming days. On Wednesday, before the debt-relief plan was struck down, President Biden singled out the issue as a top one that motivated young voters to turn out for the midterms in “historic numbers.” “We will continue to keep borrowers informed about our efforts to deliver targeted relief,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Friday. “Separately, we remain committed to taking other actions to fix longstanding issues in the student loan forgiveness system and hold schools accountable for leaving students with mountains of debt and without the skills and preparation to find good jobs.” Biden administration officials have been quietly preparing for the possibility that a court would strike down the program, according to administration officials, and have been discussing both legal and policy responses to such a move.
