ST. LOUIS — Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has successfully obtained a temporary restraining order to block a new student loan forgiveness plan introduced by the Biden-Harris Administration.
The court decision came just two days after Bailey’s office filed a lawsuit challenging the administration’s unpublished rule regarding the cancellation of student loans.
Bailey celebrated the ruling as a significant win for working Americans.
"Today is a huge victory for every working American who won’t have to pay for someone else’s Ivy League debt," Bailey said in a provided statement. "I paid for my education in blood, sweat, and tears in service to my country, so this fight is personal for me. We will continue to lead the way for working Americans who are being preyed upon by unelected federal bureaucrats in Washington D.C."
Bailey vowed to continue defending the interests of working Americans against what he described as exploitation by unelected federal bureaucrats.
In the lawsuit, several states argued that the Secretary of Education is unlawfully implementing a plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loans without proper publication or approval.
The states argued that federal contractors were instructed to start the loan cancellations as early as September.
The lawsuit notes the estimated costs associated with the plan, which include $146.9 billion, and additional costs from the SAVE Plan, which could total as much as $475 billion.
"Through compulsory process at the end of August, the States have just obtained documents proving that the Secretary [of Education] is implementing this plan without publication and has been planning to do so since May," the states argued. "The Secretary of Education (1) is unlawfully trying to mass cancel hundreds of billions of dollars of loans, and (2) has quietly instructed federal contractors to ‘immediately’ begin cancellation as early as September 3, 2024 (but possibly beginning on September 7)."
This marks the third time the Secretary of Education has attempted large-scale student loan forgiveness.
The lawsuit claims that, after being stopped twice by courts, the administration is now using secretive methods to advance the plan.
Bailey previously led successful legal challenges against similar efforts, with the Supreme Court siding with him twice.
U.S. District Judge J. Randal Hall in the Southern District of Georgia ordered the temporary restraining order and set a hearing for Sept. 18.
On Sept. 3, the states filed a complaint seeking emergency relief to stop the Secretary of Education's plan to unlawfully cancel hundreds of billions in student loans.
The states claimed the plan evades prior injunctions and lacks proper publication and urged immediate court intervention.
"Defendants are temporarily restrained from implementing the Third Mass Cancellation Rule," Hall wrote in the order. "Further, Defendants are restrained from mass canceling student loans, forgiving any principal or interest, not charging borrowers accrued interest, or further implementing any other actions under the Rule or instructing federal contractors to take such actions. This Order applies to all of Defendants' officers, agents, employees, attorneys, and other persons in active concert or participation with them."
Attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota and Ohio have joined Bailey in the lawsuit.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, Brunswick Division case number: 2:24-cv-00103