Less than a week after an online application portal for student debt relief went live, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the Biden administration from moving forward with its student loan forgiveness plan.

The ruling came Friday evening just as over half of qualifying student loan borrowers filed applications on the site. Today, the website has seen over 22 million applicants waiting to hear whether or not they will be granted student loan relief.

The temporary administrative stay came from the U.S Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals last Friday evening. It will remain in place as the appeals court considers a motion filed by six Republican-led states to block the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program. Upon issuing the stay, the court ordered the Biden administration not to act on the program until further notice. The ruling comes a day after a court threw out the initial lawsuit.

The initial joint lawsuit was filed on September 29th and represented Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina. At the heart of their lawsuit was the claim that wiping out student loan debt will cost the state's revenue due to servicing loans and taxes. Of course, they also argued that the Biden administration did not have the authority to make such a sweeping call.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt explained in a statement that “The Biden Administration’s executive action to cancel student loan debt was not only unconstitutional, it will unfairly burden working-class families and those who chose not to take out loans or have paid them off with even more economic woes.”

After hearing the case, Judge Henry Edward Autrey of the Eastern District of Missouri threw out the complaint last Thursday. Judge Autrey ruled that the plaintiffs had no legal standing to sue despite the “important and significant challenges” they brought up in their suit. Less than 24 hours later, the states were granted a stay after appealing the court's decision.

Despite the ruling issued by the appellate court, the Education Department Secretary, Miguel Cardona, doubled down on the administration's promise by issuing the following statement last Friday, “Today's temporary decision does not stop the Biden Administration's efforts to provide borrowers the opportunity to apply for debt relief nor does it prevent us from reviewing the millions of applications we have received.” Cardona adds, “Amidst Republicans' efforts to block our debt relief program, we are moving full speed ahead to be ready to deliver relief to borrowers who need the help.”

The Biden Administration's effort to relieve borrowers of student debt is rooted in a nearly 20-year-old federal law that allows the Department of Education to “alleviate the hardship that federal student loan recipients may suffer as a result of national emergencies.” It was under this same law that the Trump administration implemented a pause in student loan repayments at the start of the pandemic in 2019.

Canceling student debt was a major pillar of the Biden administration’s campaign platform. In August, his administration announced that borrowers will see forgiveness of up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt. Some borrowers could qualify for up to $20,000 in forgiveness. The initial loan forgiveness promise included all borrowers who had federal student loan debt. After touting this campaign promise for the past couple of months, the Biden administration announced that only borrowers who had consolidated their student loans with the Education Department would be eligible. For many borrowers, this latest temporary block of the program is another blow.

Outside of this ruling, there is still a flurry of other lawsuits pending against the Biden administration's Department of Education. At the heart of many of these lawsuits, plaintiffs challenged Biden's authority to make such a sweeping executive decision.

Last Thursday, the Supreme Court shot down an emergency request brought forward by a Wisconsin organization, the Brown County Taxpayers Association. Justice Amy Coney Barrett received the emergency application and along with the court’s other justices, refused to block the program’s rollout. The Supreme Court shared that "if every federal taxpayer could sue to challenge any Government expenditure, the federal courts would cease to function as courts of law and would be cast in the role of general complaint bureaus."

Following the ruling by the appellate court, attorneys representing the Republican-led states celebrated the court’s decision. Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson shared in a statement, “We are pleased the temporary stay has been granted.” He added, “It's very important that the legal issues involving presidential power be analyzed by the court before transferring over $400 billion in debt to American taxpayers.”

Despite the temporary block, the Biden administration’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, urged qualifying borrowers to continue with the application process. She also shared, “We will continue to move full speed ahead in our preparations in compliance with this order. And, the Administration will continue to fight Republican officials suing to block our efforts to provide relief to working families.”