A reprieve late today from a round of losses for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge:
The 8th Circuit U.S. Court of appeals has temporarily stopped the Biden administration from moving ahead with discharging student loan debt. It’s effectively a nationwide temporary injunction.
It wants to rule first on an “emergency” request from Republican states like Arkansas to block the policy pending trial. Cancellation was to begin Sunday.
Replies to the order are to be completed by Tuesday.
The 8th Circuit is packed with Republicans and arch-conservative. A district judge in Missouri had refused to stop the program from moving forward saying the states lacked standing or proof of harm. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a confirmed Trumpist, also rejected challenges to the measure.
