The MeidasTouch Podcast - BREAKING: DOJ and MAGA States FILE dueling BRIEFS to 8th Circuit in Student Loan Cancellation Appeal

Episode Date: October 26, 2022

On this edition of The Mighty, MeidasTouch Network host Ben Meiselas breaks down the recent filings before the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals by the DOJ and several MAGA-led states that may determine the fate of Biden’s student debt cancellation program. Last week, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay temporarily blocking the Biden administration from discharging student debt pursuant to the debt cancellation program. On The Mighty, we feature some of the most impactful responses, reactions, narratives, musings, and rants of Meidas content creators and highlight pro-democracy candidates and activists throughout the country. New episodes of the traditional MeidasTouch Podcast featuring drop every Tuesday and Friday morning. Shop Meidas Merch at: https://store.meidastouch.com Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/meidastouch Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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discharge debt under the student debt cancellation program. And in the order by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, they set an expedited briefing schedule for the Department of Justice to submit their briefs and for the Republican-led states to submit their briefs challenging the district court's ruling, where the district court, which was in the Eastern District of Missouri, and it was a George W. Bush appointee district court judge who actually made the ruling, who found that these Republican-led states did not have standing to bring lawsuits trying to stop or block or enjoin the Biden student debt cancellation program. And just to remind you of what this lawsuit is about, on September 29th of 2022, six Republican-led states, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas,

and South Carolina brought lawsuits in the Eastern District of Missouri. They all joined in on the same lawsuit. And they alleged that they were harmed because their tax revenue would be decreased because they would be collecting less taxes from their taxpayers based on Biden canceling debt. And this didn't really make all that much sense because in these states, discharge debt was not taxable as income. Yet what these states argued

is that it could be taxable as income. And they also argued that a number of collection agencies that would go after students if they didn't pay their debt, that their revenues would be decreased also, which would in turn harm the states. But the district court judge, again, a right-wing appointed judge, did not agree with that analysis, found that there was no standing and dismissed the lawsuit.

These states then filed an appeal with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and as part of their appeal, saw an emergency stay stopping Biden's program for going into effect pending the resolution of the appeal. So let's just pull that order up, and then let's talk about the briefing that was filed pursuant to this briefing schedule. So here we have on the screen the ruling from last week, from October 21st of 2022, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, State of Nebraska et al., et al., referring to all the other states, versus Joseph Biden in his official capacity as the President of the United States at all. They also sued the Department of Education, and it's an appeal from the district court for the Eastern District of Missouri, St. Louis

Division. Order. Appellant's emergency motion for an administrative stay prohibiting the appellees from discharging any student loan debt under the cancellation program until this court rules on appellant's motion for an injunction, pending appeal is granted. So what they're saying there is that the Republican state's emergency motion for an administrative stay for this action to prohibit the Biden administration from discharging the student debt under the cancellation program until the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals rules on this motion for an injunction, which is to totally stop, essentially, to basically totally stop Biden from implementing the student debt cancellation program, not on a temporary basis, but on an enduring basis. And they said that is granted. What's granted is the temporary stay pending the court reviewing the motions on the more permanent injunction. The request for an expedited briefing

on the motion for an injunction pending appeal is granted as followed. And so what they're seeking, these states, is an injunction, enjoining or stopping it, pending a full-fledged appeal, which can take a long period of time. So the practical effect, that's why I say this enduring injunction, that right now this stay is a temporary maneuver, but if the injunction pending appeal is granted, that can seriously derail

the student debt cancellation program for a very, very, very long period of time. And one of the things I pointed out as well in the prior video that this Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals order didn't make much sense to me because if you look at it too, they're entertaining an emergency motion for an administrative stay. But what the district court did was find that there was no standing for the states to even sue, that the states couldn't assert a cognizable injury. So how could you stay on an emergency basis that finding by the district court judge of no standing? How are you staying that on an emergency basis, that finding by the district court judge of no standing. How are you staying that in an emergency basis? What this actually really was, there was a injunction, a temporary injunction that the Eighth Circuit was granting. In any event, whatever the technicality is,

and the reason why I have problems with the technicalities is those that courts used to care about technicalities. Technicalities used to say, oh, wait a minute, we, the Eighth Circuit, don't have the procedural power to do this. But it seems like they don't care about those technicalities anymore. But in any event, the practical effect of this was to temporarily block the Biden administration from implementing the student debt cancellation program pending the expedited briefing. And now the expedited briefing schedule set forth here. Appalachia's response in opposition, so the DOJ's response in opposition, shall be due on or before 5 p.m. Central on Monday, October 24th. An appellant's reply,

the Republican-led state's reply, if any, is due on or before 5 p.m. Central Tuesday, October 25th, 2022. So now, as of the time of this recording, the Department of Justice has submitted their briefing on the issue. Theirs was due on Monday. The Republican-led states submitted their briefing on the issue. That was due Tuesday. And here's what the Department of Justice argued in their briefs. They say, look, these Republican-led states are seeking this extraordinary injunction pending an appeal in a suit that the district court dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, that there was no standing. Such an application demands a significantly higher justification than just a request for a stay. The Department of Justice goes on to say, Congress granted the Secretary of Education broad authority

to ensure that national emergencies do not financially harm student loan borrowers. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, secretaries from two administrations, Trump and Biden, invoked that authority to suspend interest accrual and payments on federally held student loans. As those protections wind down, the Secretary of Education reasonably determined it was necessary to provide targeted debt relief to federal student loan borrowers affected by the pandemic. Now, six states seek to enjoin the secretary's action, but the district court correctly held that they lack standing. They go on to say plaintiffs cannot establish the need for injunctive relief. Plaintiffs do not have Article III standing, and even if they did,

they are unlikely to succeed on their claims given Congress's authorization for the Secretary of Education's actions and the Secretary's explicit consideration of the relevant factors. Further, these Republican-led states, this is an important part, will suffer no irreparable injury from the provision of much needed relief to millions of Americans. But the public interest would be greatly harmed by its denial. The people will be harmed. And these states are creating fake irreparable harm issues because when you're seeking this injunctive relief, this emergency injunctive relief, these states are arguing that they're about to suffer irreparable harm if regular Americans, mostly who are making less than $75,000, get this very targeted relief. I mean, how cruel can you be, especially where the states have not even articulated really what amount of money

they're going to lose. Hypothetical tax revenue by going after students for the $10,000 that would be discharged under Biden's student debt cancellation program. That's how cruel these Republican-led states are. So that was the fundamental argument that the Department of Justice made on their brief filed on October 24th. And then you have the Republican states. They filed their brief. And in their brief, they basically said, look, we're not just seeking for an injunction here in the Eighth Circuit states.

The same way you, the Eighth Circuit, granted a national temporary injunction, we want, and this is what they say, the court should enjoin the entire cancellation program for the entire country. That's the relief that they're seeking. And what the states argue is they go, the department's contrived reasons for rejecting this major question doctrines do not override the clear evidence confirming it applies. And the agency's baseless reading of the HEROES Act places practically no limits on the secretary's power to discharge debt during or after national emergencies. And so the central argument that the states are arguing after they claim that they have standing,

they argue that the HEROES Act, which was passed by during the George W. Bush administration giving powers to the Secretary of Education to do things like discharge debt in case of war or national emergencies, What they argue is that cannot possibly apply to the pandemic and to the current conditions affecting students, that that is outside of the scope of the authority that was delegated to the Secretary of Education and that the HEROES Act cannot be used as the basis for providing the student debt cancellation program or implementing the student debt cancellation

program. So that's the argument that's being made by the states. And they've been joined by numerous other right-wing radical groups that have millions of dollars of funding from right wing billionaire groups who have filed amicus briefs, which are also known as friends of the court briefs, to try to fight for the court to deny students this very, very, very targeted relief. I mean, we're talking about less than $10,000 relief for loans and $20,000 for Pell Grants. I mean, that's the targeted relief here that we're talking about. Breaking news. A brand new game is now live at Bet365.

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Please play responsibly. If you or someone you know has concerns about gambling, visit connexontario.ca. T's and Z's apply. And, you know, one thing to mention, the White House on the same day of all of these briefings, the White House tweeted out as well or has made clear that over 22 million Americans have already given the Biden-Harris administration the information to be considered for life-changing student debt relief. Think about that. 22 million Americans would benefit from this, and the Republican-led states are working harder than almost on any other issue out there.

More than focusing on their electric grids, more than focusing on their roads, more than focusing on their police, more than focusing on keeping their states safer, more than focusing on their police, more than focusing on keeping their state safer, more than focusing on their highways and roadways, and more than focusing on building firehouses. They are uniquely focused and they are obsessed with the fact that here is a situation where regular folk, where average Americans can get targeted debt relief. They don't care when it comes to the PPP, when all these lawmakers took out hundreds of thousands or if not millions of dollars. They're cool with that. They're cool when you have tax cuts for billionaires and billionaires get bailed out when they get into financial duress. They're cool with that. They

don't care about the impact on the economy there. Here, there is a program that could actually help just some real Americans for once in an area where the burden of these student loans is, in many cases, preventing people from buying homes and participating in the economy. It's creating this jam in the pipeline of financial freedom. And so this is just trying in a small way to target it. And these Republican-led states and these Republican-led groups, and we got to be clear where this is coming from, the Republican-led groups are the one who's pushing it,

are obsessed, absolutely obsessed with ensuring that this program does not take effect. Now, one of the things about the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, it's composition. One George H.W. Bush judge, five George W. Bush judges, one Obama judge, and four Trump-appointed judges. So there are 10 Republicans, one Democrat on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, just one Obama appointee, no other Democrats on there. It's why elections have consequences and why, even though I believe here for a number of reasons on the standing aspect of it, on the merits itself, but on the standing aspect and on the fact that one of the things if you're

seeking this emergency injunction pending the outcome of the appeal, you have to show irreparable harm. And the only people who would suffer irreparable harm right now would be the students who will be deprived of this relief that they should get. So the states, to me, haven't asserted irreparable harm. They haven't asserted jurisdiction or standing. So they shouldn't even get to the merits. But when you get to the merits, to me, they clearly lose on the merits as well. Um, but so where do I think it should come out?

I think the department of justice should win, but we're in front of the eighth circuit and the chances here that the eighth circuit and even the United States Supreme court, uh, would perhaps have a favorable view of what the states are trying to do and to block Biden from implementing this student debt cancellation program. I think that either the Supreme Court or the Eighth Circuit is going to try to stop this from happening. And one of the questions you may be asking is, and I heard this before, well, I thought that the Supreme Court previously rejected this challenge. Didn't Amy Coney Barrett reject it? That was a different case. That was in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. That was a group called the Brown County Taxpayers Association, some other AstroTurf group. What the Republicans do is they flood the zone.

They filed these lawsuits literally everywhere, different groups and states and all over to try to get through one of these courts. That's part of their strategy. And here they got through with the Eighth Circuit and the states, but they tried getting through with all of these other courts to get what they happened, what occurred here. In that case, the Brown County Taxpayers Association, they were a group of taxpayers and they claimed as taxpayers that this would impact their taxes would go up. And there, the district court judge said no. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected it.

And then an emergency application was filed with the Supreme Court. Amy Coney Barrett is the supervising judge that hears emergency applications over the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. And Amy Coney Barrett said, rejected, denied the emergency application. But that was on the basis of standing. That came through another court. These are now states saying, unlike the Brown County Taxpayer Association, we as states and our ability to collect revenue from taxpayers here, that we have damage, we have injury, so we should get past the standing argument. And let's talk about the merits regarding the HEROES Act and that we believe that the HEROES Act does not allow the Secretary of

Education to provide for the student debt cancellation program. So I normally would give predictions. It's a tough call with the Eighth Circuit. If they followed the law, the student debt cancellation program should go into effect, and they should not grant the injunctive relief by the states. But I think you have an Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, depending on the panel, that will be sympathetic to the states. And if it's, unfortunately, the wrong panel, I think they will grant the injunction, in which case it will go to the Supreme Court through an emergency application. Whoever loses here will file an emergency application. And I think the emergency application

will be ultimately denied by the Supreme Court. So I feel like whoever wins here, that's going to be the status quo of what takes place. But meanwhile, at least 22 million lives hang in the balance of people who rely on this and just regular Americans. And I just hope that, I just think it's so cruel. I just hope that everybody who's watching this, please share these videos and just let people know what's going on. That's why I take the time to explain it in this detail because you need to understand the way our legal system to understand that way our legal system understands

that it is uniquely Republican-led states and Republican groups who are challenging this initiative. This is not a both sides issue and courts doing it. This is all Republicans, Republican judges, Republican groups, and they don't do this when billionaires get their tax benefits and when billionaires get tax cuts and when billionaires get bailed out and when billionaires get all of the perks that they get. to going down, our deficit has decreased close to $2 trillion under Biden, it's not really a logical factual debate with them. MAGA Republicans and the Republican Party don't want regular Americans to have this relief. They view when regular Americans get it, they view that as a handout. They say, pull yourselves up by the bootstraps. That's their view. But when billionaires get it, they call it trickle-down economics. They call it that they deserve it, that they should get it, that that will be great for the economy when wealthy people can hoard money. And I just think that we have to look at these issues with common sense. And we have to say it's important that we also help regular Americans too.

So we'll keep you updated here on the Midas Touch Network. Wanted to give you that extensive but I think important background on where we are with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals case, which is currently holding up the student debt relief program by President Biden. We'll keep you updated here on the Midas Touch Network. Hit the subscribe button. Now we're on our way to 1 million subscribers with your support. Hit the subscribe. Also, if you want to support independent media like this, here's what you can do. It goes a long way and you always ask, how can you help? Here's how you can help. Go to patreon.com slash Midas Touch, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com slash Midas Touch.

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