Larry Williams Drive

A federal judge rejected a lawsuit brought by six Republican-led states challenging President Joe Biden's student debt relief program. US District Judge Henry Edward Autrey said Thursday he was dismissing the case because the states had not overcome the procedural threshold known as standing, which requires that plaintiffs show that a policy is causing them direct and traceable harm. Student loan cancellations, worth up to $20,000 per eligible borrower, could begin on Sunday. The states are expected to appeal the judge's ruling, sending the case to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, where it is likely to face a panel of conservative judges. The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Missouri last month by state attorneys general from Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska and South Carolina, as well as legal representatives from Iowa. The states had argued in court documents that the Biden administration does not have the legal authority to grant broad student loan forgiveness, as well as that the program would