Month: December 2022

According to a SCOTUSblog report, the U.S. Supreme Court will review the legality of the Biden administration’s student debt relief plan during an oral argument in February. Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan would cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for eligible student borrowers, however, the plan has since been brought to a standstill due to several lower court rulings. The Supreme Court report comes almost two weeks after the Department of Education extended the student loan payment moratorium from its Dec. 31 expiration date to June 2023.

The Biden administration unveiled the federal student loan debt program in August, stating it would cancel up to $10,000 in student loan debt for anyone making less than $125,000 or for households making less than $250,000 a year. Pell Grant recipients, who receive aid based on financial need, would get an additional $10,000 in debt relief. It expected around $32 billion in federal student debt to be canceled for more than 1.6 million Americans during through administration’s student loan forgiveness actions.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement: “We’re extending the payment pause because it would be deeply unfair to ask borrowers to pay a debt that they wouldn’t have to pay, were it not for the baseless lawsuits brought by Republican officials and special interests.”  The Department of Education wrote in a statement that the pause will extend 60 days after the Biden administration is allowed to implement its student loan forgiveness plan or legal challenges are resolved. Officials said the 60-day period will give the Supreme Court an opportunity to resolve the case during its current term. If the Department of Education can’t proceed with its policy and the legal challenges are still in play by June 30, 2023, student loan payments will resume 60 days after that date.

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A panel of judges on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday to overturn the appointment of a special master tasked with reviewing thousands of documents seized by the FBI from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate this summer. The ruling by the three-judge panel goes into effect in seven days, absent intervention by the full circuit court or the Supreme Court.

The judges found: “The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”  The order eliminates a major obstacle in federal authorities ongoing criminal investigation into whether Trump illegally retained highly classified records after leaving the presidency and obstructed efforts by the government to recover them. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The appellate judges repeatedly expressed concern that the appointment of third-party judge Raymond Dearie by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida lacked any clear precedent. Cannon had empowered Dearie, as special master, to evaluate the approximately 13,000 materials taken from Trump’s club, including roughly 100 documents with classification markings. Dearie was supposed to analyze if any of the documents that were taken raised privilege concerns, either executive privilege or attorney-client privilege.

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Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York has been elected the next Democratic House leader, making history as the first black lawmaker to lead a political party’s caucus. The 52-year-old Jeffries was elected on Wednesday in a unanimous vote, as Democrats prepare to relinquish control of the House in January. Jeffries will take over for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who announced earlier this month she would not seek leadership next session. Pelosi has served as the House Democratic leader since 2003.

Jeffries was first elected to Congress in 2012; his top deputy will be Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., 59, who served under Jeffries as vice chair of the Democratic Caucus and rose to assistant speaker in this Congress. The trio represents a generational shift for Democrats, who are currently led by a trio in their 80s.  Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol: “This is a moment of transition  We stand on the shoulders of giants, but are also looking forward to being able to do what’s necessary at this moment to advance the issues.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called Jeffries’ election a turning point in the history of the United States Congress: “It’s not surprising that House Democrats are turning to someone from Brooklyn to lead the way next year, because when you’re from Brooklyn, you learn quickly traits like persistence and serious mettle. It’s a crowded place and a diverse place. You learn how to work with all kinds of different people. You learn how to stand your ground. You learn to not take things personally.”

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The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation to avoid a railroad strike; national railroad workers had vowed to strike on Dec. 9 if no agreement was reached. The legislation passed the House by a vote of 290-137, and still needs to be approved by the Senate.  If enacted the measure would require companies and railway employees to adhere to a tentative agreement that was brokered earlier this year by the Biden administration.

President Joe Biden issued a personal appeal for Congress earlier in the week, saying in an official White House press release: “I am calling on Congress to pass legislation immediately to adopt the Tentative Agreement between railroad workers and operators — without any modifications or delay — to avert a potentially crippling national rail shutdown.” 

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had expressed his intention to hold up the legislation unless a measure was added to guarantee seven days of paid sick leave to railroad employees, tweeting: “At a time of record profits in the rail industry, it’s unacceptable that rail workers have zero guaranteed paid sick days. It’s my intention to block consideration of the rail legislation until a roll call vote occurs on guaranteeing seven paid sick days to rail workers in America.” A separate piece of legislation, mandating paid sick leave for railroad workers, passed the House by 221-207.

The National Railway Act allows congress to intervene in labor disputes related to national railroads but the law has not been invoked since the 19

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