A federal appeals court on Wednesday did not grant President Biden’s request to hold a Texas judge’s ruling which deemed the President’s student loan debt cancellation plan as unlawful.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the request to pause a judge’s Nov. 10 order that blocked the $400 billion student debt relief program in a lawsuit that a conservative advocacy group had filed.
The original decision was made by Fort Worth, Texas-based U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman and it was one of two rulings that blocked the U.S. Department of Education from granting student loan debt relief to borrowers.
The administration has also requested the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the order by the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which had granted the request of six Republican-led states for the student loan cancellation program to be stopped.
A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit in Wednesday’s issued their brief order which turned down the administration’s request to have Pittman’s ruling paused while the administration filed an appeal on his ruling. However, the court ruled that the appeal could be heard on an expedited basis.
The three judges on the panel included two Republican appointees and one Democratic appointee, who had been appointed by then Democratic President Barack Obama. Pittman had been appointed by former President Donald Trump.
