- Biden's Education Department has stopped accepting applications for student-loan forgiveness.
- The announcement came after a US District judge ruled on Thursday that the debt relief program was illegal.
The Biden administration is no longer accepting applications as part of the student loan forgiveness program following a court order that struck down the plan on Thursday evening.
"Courts have issued orders blocking our student debt relief program," according to a note on the forgiveness application page. "As a result, at this time, we are not accepting applications. We are seeking to overturn those orders."
On Thursday, US District Judge Mark Pittman — appointed by former President Donald Trump in 2019 — in the Northern District of Texas Court ruled that Biden's plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for federal borrowers making under $125,000 a year is illegal.
This ruling is the first of its kind so far amid at least five other major conservative lawsuits that are also attempting to block student-loan forgiveness. The Education Department said in a statement following the ruling that the Department of Justice has filed an appeal.
US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement today: "We believe strongly that the Biden-Harris Student Debt Relief Plan is lawful and necessary to give borrowers and working families breathing room as they recover from the pandemic and to ensure they succeed when repayment restarts."
Cardona added: "Amidst efforts to block our debt relief program, we are not standing down."
Elaine Parker, president of the Job Creators Network Foundation which called Biden's plan "irrational, arbitrary and unfair," said in a statement following the judge's ruling: "The court has correctly ruled in favor of our motion and deemed the Biden student loan program illegal."
"The judge criticized the Biden Administration program, calling it 'one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States.' This ruling protects the rule of law which requires all Americans to have their voices heard by their federal government," she added.
This also comes as the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals placed a temporary stay on Biden's student-loan forgiveness in response to a lawsuit filed by six Republican-led states who sued the relief, arguing it would hurt their states' tax revenues. Borrowers are awaiting a decision from the court, and until then, the Education Department cannot cancel any student loans.
Cardona said that the department will hold onto borrowers' applications until the court allows student-loan forgiveness to move forward, and Biden previously said that 26 million borrowers had already submitted their forms, and 16 million of them had been officially approved for debt relief.