Judge Greenlights Lawsuit Over Student Debt Relief With Limitations

A federal judge has allowed a multi-state lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s “most generous” student loan repayment option to proceed, but only after dismissing most plaintiff states from the case. Republican attorneys general of Kansas and 10 other states sued the U.S. Department of Education in late March. In a response issued on June 7, U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree of the District of Kansas said only three states—South Carolina, Texas, and Alaska—”just barely” have standing to sue. At the center of the suit is an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan dubbed SAVE. The 11-state coalition claims that the program, under which millions of federal student loan borrowers have qualified for a $0 monthly payment, represents just another version of the large-scale debt cancellation initiative the U.S. Supreme Court struck down last summer....