The states governed by the Republican Party sued the government and asked that the cancellation of the student debt proposed by Biden be blocked, arguing that the president had exceeded his limits with this decision and that he lacked the power to decree something like this unilaterally. The administration has until Monday to present the arguments that support the execution of the measure as planned.

The United States justice temporarily blocked the cancellation of student debt decreed by the country’s president, Democrat Joe Biden, which was scheduled to take effect from next week.

An order issued by the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit blocked the remission until at least Monday, the time the government has to argue that the program should go ahead as planned. Once the government presents its arguments, the plaintiffs (six states governed by the Republican Party) will have until Tuesday to present their counter argument.

This Friday’s order is the result of the appeal filed by these six states (Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina), after Judge Henry Autrey of the Eastern District Court of Missouri on Thursday , issued another order in which it considered that the plaintiffs are not a party affected by the forgiveness of the debt and, therefore, rejected their blocking request.

The states had sued the government and asked that the cancellation be blocked, considering that Biden had overstepped the limits with this decision and that he lacked the power to decree something like this unilaterally.

At the end of August, the president announced that he will forgive part of the debt that millions of university students contracted with the federal government in order to pay for their studies, in a nod to the young vote with just over two months to go before the legislative elections.

The announcement came after months of internal debate within the government and student debt payments being halted in 2020 as a pandemic relief measure. “Delivering on one of my campaign promises, my administration is announcing a plan to give working and middle-class families some breathing room,” Biden said.

The president reported the cancellation of up to US$10,000 of debt per student, but this measure will only benefit those who earn less than US$125,000 a year or those who, being married, have an income of less than US$250,000 a year.

In an attempt to help lower-income students, Biden also assured that $20,000 in debt contracted by recipients of Pell grants, which benefit a large number of low-income Hispanic and African-American students, will be canceled.