A judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Joe Biden's administration from implementing its latest student debt forgiveness plan, just days after seven Republican-led states filed a lawsuit seeking to halt it.
U.S. District Judge J. Randal Hall in Augusta, Georgia, said the states had established a likelihood of proving the Education Department lacked authority to cancel student loans under the plan, which the states alleged it was on the verge of doing.
Hall issued a temporary restraining order after Republican state attorneys general filed a lawsuit on Tuesday over a proposed Education Department rule in April that would benefit an estimated 27.6 million borrowers with federal student loans.
The state attorneys general said they had obtained documents showing the department had instructed federal loan servicers to begin canceling hundreds of billions of dollars of loans as soon as this week, before the rule was finalized.
At least $73 billion in loans could be canceled overnight, their lawsuit said, and billions in further debt relief could follow. The states argue the Education Department has no authority to carry out such debt forgiveness.
Hall, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush, said he decided to "hastily" issue the order pausing the policy pending a Sept. 18 hearing in order to preserve the status quo.
"Plaintiffs show a substantial likelihood of success on the merits given the rule's lack of statutory authority," he wrote.
The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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