MIDLAND, Mich. — The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, has filed a notice of appeal with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on its challenge to the COVID-era student loan pause. While deferments were lawfully suspended as part of the CARES Act in March of 2020, subsequent deferments were unilaterally extended without congressional appropriation in September 2020. The pause continued until October 2023.

Below is a statement from Patrick J. Wright, vice president for legal affairs at the Mackinac Center.

The Department of Education started a dangerous pattern of sidestepping Congressional authority by indefinitely continuing payment pause on student loans. This has morphed into the current administration’s more brazen attempts to give direct payoffs of student loans, which have repeatedly been shut down by the Courts. The unconstitutional payment pause has cost taxpayers more than $150 billion. Future debt relief decisions must be made by the people’s elected representatives, not unelected bureaucrats.

Learn more about the case here.