This week, we look at the latest in the court battles over student loan relief, the influence of oil and gas on college endowments and the case of some lost SAT answer sheets.
Happy Sunday,
Or, if you’re a federal student loan borrower, it may be a less-than-happy Sunday.
Cory here, with the latest news on the legal fight over President Biden’s sweeping debt relief plan. On Thursday, that plan hit a legal wall when a U.S. District Court judge in Texas called it unlawful and vacated the entire debt relief program.
Evan Vucci/AP
The federal government quickly appealed the decision, which came just weeks before student loan payments are set to resume in January. The program was already on hold while a federal appeals court in St. Louis considers a separate lawsuit by six states challenging it.
In Thursday’s ruling, Judge Mark T. Pittman, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, wrote that the program was a "complete usurpation" of congressional authority by the executive branch.
Pittman rejected the Biden administration's arguments that, in a law known as the HEROES Act, Congress had already given the president the power to erase student loan debts in a time of national emergency and that the COVID-19 pandemic is just such an emergency.
"In this country, we are not ruled by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a phone," Pittman wrote. "Instead, we are ruled by a Constitution that provides for three distinct and independent branches of government."
"We strongly disagree with the District Court's ruling on our student debt relief program," White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said. "The President and this Administration are determined to help working and middle-class Americans get back on their feet, while our opponents – backed by extreme Republican special interests – sued to block millions of Americans from getting much-needed relief."
If you’re keeping score, that’s two different debt relief cases now on appeal, one in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the other, Thursday’s decision, in the conservative-leaning 5th Circuit.
For more on the case and what it means for student loan borrowers, check out the rest of my story HERE.
Texas on top? For more than 35 years, Harvard University has held the largest college endowment in the U.S. Recent data indicates that the University of Texas is catching up, in large part because of royalties it has made from oil and natural gas. Read more here.
Cornell frat parties suspended. The Ivy League university paused all parties and social events hosted by fraternities after campus police said one student reported a sexual assault and another four reported their drinks being drugged. Read more here.
Gone with the wind. Fifty-five students in El Paso, Texas, may have to retake the SAT after their answer sheets flew out of the UPS truck transporting them. Read more here.
A discovery that was a century in the making. One hundred years after discovering the tomb of King Tutankhamun, archeologists are uncovering more artifacts rife with controversy. Read more here.
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