(The hill) – President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan was declared a victory by a judge in Georgia this week, removing a Republican challenger and allowing the program to continue for now after a short-lived restraining order expired.
U.S. District Judge J. Randal Hall said Wednesday that Georgia had no standing to sue because it could not show it would be adequately harmed by Biden’s $73 billion student loan forgiveness plan, despite arguments that the plan would harm its tax revenue.
The ruling came a day before the injunction expired and allowed the administration to continue the program while the case was moved to Missouri.
Missouri, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota and Ohio originally sued the Biden administration after novel rules were proposed this year to assist more than 27 million borrowers receive full or partial loan forgiveness.
“Without standing, Georgia cannot provide proper venue for the action because a plaintiff who lacks standing cannot create venue where it would not otherwise exist,” Hall wrote.
The judge has transferred the case to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, with states already asking the novel judge to make a decision by Friday on whether or not to block the program. Reuters reported.
“While we appreciate the district court’s admission that this case has no legal basis in Georgia, the fact remains that this lawsuit reflects the ongoing efforts of Republican elected officials to prevent millions of their own voters from voting in their country to breathe.” Student loans,” a spokesman for the Ministry of Education said in a statement. “We will continue our lawful efforts to provide relief to more Americans, including by vigorously defending these proposals in court.”
The Hill has reached out to the Missouri governor’s office for comment.
