After reviewing the background of the current moratorium on federal student loan payments and the Biden Administration’s decision to grant loan forgiveness, we discuss two recent decisions that have paused the Administration’s ability to proceed with forgiveness. We first analyze the Texas federal district court decision vacating the forgiveness program, including the court’s standing analysis and application of the “major questions doctrine.” Next, we discuss the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals panel decision enjoining the forgiveness program pending resolution of an appeal filed by six state attorneys general whose challenge to the program had been dismissed by a Missouri federal district court for lack of standing. We also look at the Administration’s likely next steps in the two cases, the prospects for Supreme Court review, and whether the payments moratorium is likely to continue beyond its scheduled January 2023 expiration.

Alan Kaplinsky, Ballard Spahr Senior Counsel in the firm’s Consumer Financial Services Group, hosts the conversation, joined by Tom Burke, a partner in the Group.