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☆ Wyoming abortion ban blocked due to Obamacare-era amendment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Abortion is legal in Wyoming again, oddly enough as the result of a state constitutional amendment pushed by conservatives opposed to Obamacare more than a decade ago. Anti-abortion lawmakers in Wyoming have tried to work around the 2012 amendment in passing the ban on abortion. The state's sweeping ban, dubbed "Life is a Human Right Act," claims that abortion is not a form of health care. It's unclear whether the court will ultimately agree that the anti-Obamacare amendment prohibits a state abortion ban. For instance, a judge in Ohio in October temporarily blocked the state's abortion ban because of a constitutional provision adopted in 2011 as a backlash to Obamacare.

☆ Biden's student loan forgiveness plan spurred these heated Supreme Court exchanges
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Justices on the bench hearing arguments about the student loan forgiveness program. Source: Bill HennessyThere were many tense moments Tuesday as the nine Supreme Court justices grilled the plaintiffs challenging the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan and the government attorney defending the policy. Six Republican-led states brought one lawsuit against the forgiveness plan, and conservative advocacy organization, the Job Creators Network Foundation, backed the second. Response to a 'once-in-a-century pandemic'The Heroes Act of 2003, which the Biden administration is using as its legal justification to carry out its student loan forgiveness program, authorizes the education secretary to "waive or modify" student loan programs during national emergencies to avoid borrower distress. Whether student loan forgiveness is 'fair'Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito became frustrated with Prelogar at one point, accusing her of not answering his question on the fairness of the forgiveness plan.

☆ Will student loan forgiveness pass the Supreme Court? Here's what we know so far
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Kamaron Mcnair | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

WASHINGTON, DC - People rally in support of the Biden administration's student debt relief plan in front of the the U.S. Supreme Court on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. This week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments from both supporters and opponents of President Joe Biden's student debt forgiveness plan. Student loan borrowers have the most immediately at stake, but the high court's ruling and rationale could have bigger implications for the government. Nebraska solicitor general, James Campbell, who represented the state plaintiffs, responded that "the state speaks for MOHELA." Will student loan forgiveness pass?

The British lender reported a pretax profit for 2022 of 7 billion pounds ($8.5 billion), down from 8.2 billion pounds the year before and just below the 7.2 billion pounds average analyst forecast, as compiled by the bank. Profits before tax in that division also tumbled by 23% to around 5 billion pounds. In its annual report also published on Wednesday, Barclays said it had docked top executives' pay by a combined 1 million pounds to reflect the regulatory misteps. Barclays' results were further marred by 1.2 billion pounds in credit impairment charges as Britain's economy continued to slow. ($1 = 0.8239 pounds)Reporting By Lawrence White and Iain Withers, editing by Sinead CruiseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Feb 14 (Reuters) - Christine Wilson, the sole Republican on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), said on Tuesday she will resign soon, blaming the move on the agency's top official, Lina Khan. "Much ink has been spilled about Lina Khan's attempts to remake federal antitrust law as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission," Wilson wrote in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. Wilson said in the piece that she would resign "soon" but gave no date. "I dissented on due-process grounds, which require those sitting in a judicial capacity to avoid even the appearance of unfairness," wrote Wilson. Wilson accused the Biden administration FTC of overstepping by being too aggressive in stopping mergers and banning most noncompete clauses.

☆ Supreme Court challenges to Biden student loan plan hinge on overreach, financial harm
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The law is a product of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and an earlier version of it provided relief to federal student loan borrowers impacted by the attacks. However, the states counter that the Heroes Act allows the Education secretary only to modify the federal student loan system to keep certain borrowers from being in a worse-off position with their loans because of a national emergency. In other words, higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz said, the states are asserting that Biden is using Covid as an excuse to pass his plan. The states also argue that Biden's plan would cause financial harm to their states, including a loss of profits for the companies that service federal student loans. The attorneys also denied the claim that the Biden administration was overstepping its authority, laying out the White House's argument that it is acting within the law under the Heroes Act of 2003.

☆ Tyler Posey is going to keep playing Scott McCall as long as 'Teen Wolf' fans will let him
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Olivia Singh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Tyler Posey as Scott McCall on season one of "Teen Wolf." Tyler Posey as Scott, Vince Mattis as Eli, and Crystal Reed as Allison in "Teen Wolf: The Movie." "I hope there's more 'Teen Wolf,'" Posey reiterates. Tyler Posey as Scott McCall in "Teen Wolf: The Movie." "But also, 'Teen Wolf' has been known to bring every single person back from the dead, so it's never finite."

☆ Premarket stocks: The Federal Reserve is testing how climate change could hurt big banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —The largest six banks in the United States have been given until July to show the Federal Reserve what effects disastrous climate change scenarios could have on their bottom lines. The Federal Reserve first announced the pilot program in September, noting that Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo would participate. In its announcement the Federal Reserve stressed that the exercise “is exploratory in nature and does not have capital consequences.” It also said that it would not publish individual banks’ results. San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly told CNN in October Thursday that this was a learning and exploratory exercise for the Federal Reserve. The other side: Critics of the pilot program have argued that the Federal Reserve was overstepping its boundaries and that they might soon begin to enforce financial penalties.

☆ Wisconsin Republicans block 'conversion therapy' ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Wisconsin Republicans voted Thursday to again allow therapists, social workers and counselors to try to change LGBTQ clients’ gender identities and sexual orientations — a discredited practice known as conversion therapy. A ban on conversion therapy was passed in 2020 by a state board within the Democratic governor’s administration overseeing licensing for mental health professionals. At least 20 states and the District of Columbia have outlawed conversion therapy for minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a pro-LGBTQ rights think tank. He said that’s all that’s at issue, not whether conversion therapy is morally or ethically right or wrong. “(The ban on conversion therapy) is necessary to protect the mental health of children in our state,” Herstand said.

"There are plenty of other people who can take measures to combat climate change and I worry that people, in their great enthusiasm for doing good, are actually putting at risk central bank independence," King said. They were in a minority in a conference packed with central bankers who had long accepted they had some duty towards the environment and, in many cases, were already taking some steps. "It would be misleading to use tighter financing conditions as a scapegoat for further delays in the green transition," Schnabel said. "By saying we have a role to play in helping to finance the green transition... we are increasing this misunderstanding of what our role is," said Wunsch, Belgium's central bank governor. Singapore's Ravi Menon, meanwhile, said central bankers should do much more to help the economy reduce its emissions than just focussing on the risks.

☆ White House defends student loan forgiveness plan to the Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration has filed a legal brief with the U.S. Supreme Court defending its plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case on President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan last month, and the justices will hear oral arguments on Feb. 28. In the meantime, the Biden administration is blocked from carrying out its plan. Before it closed its application portal, around 26 million Americans applied for the relief. Please check back for updates.

☆ Elizabeth Warren calls for the Supreme Court to reject the 'baseless lawsuits' that blocked Biden's student-loan forgiveness from reaching 'millions of working people in need of relief'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for the Supreme Court to uphold Biden's student-debt relief. It followed the Justice Department filing a defense of the relief to SCOTUS on Wednesday night. On Wednesday night, the Justice Department filed its fulled legal defense of President Joe Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt to the Supreme Court, ahead of oral arguments beginning on February 28. "The Biden Justice Department has made clear to the U.S. Supreme Court that cancelling student debt is legal under the HEROES Act and critical to millions of working people in need of relief," Warren wrote on Twitter after the legal defense was filed on Wednesday. Biden's administration has not yet commented on what alternative routes, if any, it would pursue if the Supreme Court ends up striking down the relief, noting that its focus right now is the current and ongoing litigation.

Both would be setbacks for the Biden administration. In another immigration-related case, the court has yet to rule on the Biden administration’s attempt to implement its immigration enforcement priorities. For Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the administration’s top advocate at the court, arguing before such a conservative court is a constant uphill battle. The government similarly failed to convince the conservative majority not to expand gun rights in another major ruling issued that month. The Biden administration can point to some hard-fought victories.

☆ Don't pay off your student debt in January, Biden's Education Department says: 'Millions of borrowers would be making payments they may not owe'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Education Department told borrowers in an email they are not required to resume payments in January. Before Thanksgiving, the department announced another extension of the payment pause. "You will NOT have to make your loan payments that would have been restarted in January," the department wrote in the email reviewed by Insider. "Millions of borrowers would be making payments they may not owe, or payments that are higher than they should be, under the Biden-Harris debt relief plan. On February 28, the Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments on the two separate lawsuits that have blocked the relief.

☆ India-China border clash video shows troops fighting with sticks and bricks
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Jessie Yeung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Though they’re separated by barbed wire, the footage appears to show Indian troops beating the Chinese soldiers with makeshift weapons, including what look like wooden sticks and metal pipes. In several instances, Indian soldiers can be seen throwing bricks or stones. Many of the Chinese soldiers, gathered on the other side of the wire, also appear to be holding long sticks or batons. Speaking to lawmakers on Tuesday, India’s defense minister accused Chinese troops of trying to cross the LAC, saying they were trying to “unilaterally” change the status quo. Later that evening in a statement posted online, the Chinese military’s Western Theater Command accused Indian troops of “illegally” crossing into the Chinese side of the border.

☆ Biden's student-loan forgiveness might not be doomed if the Supreme Court strikes it down — he could take another legal path
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Some advocates and lawmakers argue the Higher Education Act can be used to cancel student debt. "I believe it probably would have been better for him to use the Higher Education Act of 1965," Weiss said. The Higher Education Act as an alternativeSome Democratic lawmakers and experts argue that the authority to cancel student debt has always existed under the Higher Education Act. Legal experts have also voiced support for the Higher Education Act. The Education Department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on whether it is considering pursuing alternative routes to debt relief, including via the Higher Education Act.

☆ The Supreme Court will hear Biden's student-loan forgiveness case in February. Here's what that means for millions of borrowers waiting for relief.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments on Biden's student-debt relief in February. The good news is that President Joe Biden's debt relief isn't dead in the water — the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments to the case early next year. In the meantime, all eyes are on the Supreme Court. The issue of standing has long been the focus of not only this specific lawsuit, but the other conservative lawsuits that have sought to block debt relief. "Our student debt relief program is necessary to help 40M eligible Americans struggling under the burden of student loan debt recover from the pandemic," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona wrote on Twitter.

☆ House Democrats reviewing Trump's tax returns split into publish-everything and there-are-rules camps with GOP takeover looming
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

After finally scoring Trump's tax records, House Democrats have to figure out what to do with them. "I want them all released," Ways and Means Committee member Bill Pascrell told MSNBC ahead of Neal's group-wide meeting. José Luis Villegas/AP"Democrats' relentless pursuit of President Trump's tax returns is nothing more than a partisan attack against a political opponent that serves no legitimate or legislative purpose," Buchanan wrote in an email to Insider. Ways and Means Committee member Dan Kildee said he was backing Neal's call in this case. And while he acknowledged they were racing against the clock, Kildee said Ways and Means Democrats would rise to the challenge.

In the past two months, student loan forgiveness has been the target of two high-profile lawsuits. Meanwhile, the Biden administration responded by extending the student loan payment pause yet again. What's happening to student loan forgiveness? Since the status of student loan forgiveness remains in the air, the Biden administration has extended the student loan payment pause until the Supreme Court makes a ruling. Select ranked SoFi Student Loan Refinancing and Earnest Student Loan Refinancing as some of the best companies for refinancing student loans.

☆ An architect of the law Biden is using to cancel student debt tells the Supreme Court that the relief falls 'exactly' under the Education Secretary's authority and should be revived
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Former Rep. George Miller, who constructed the law Biden is using to cancel student debt, filed a brief with the Supreme Court supporting the plan. Miller stood with Biden's request to the court to revive the relief after lower federal courts blocked it. After Biden announced up to $20,000 in broad debt relief for federal borrowers at the end of August, a number of conservative lawsuits arose seeking to block the policy. The Supreme Court should lift the injunction put in place by the Eighth Circuit." Along with Miller, advocates, legal experts, and economists filed a series of briefs to the Supreme Court also expressing support for reviving Biden's debt relief.

☆ One day after asking the Supreme Court to save its student-loan forgiveness plan, the Biden administration started notifying applicants they've been approved
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Isabella Zavarise | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The Biden administration began notifying applicants who have been approved for student-loan relief. The notifications came after the administration asked the Supreme Court to save its debt relief plan. "Your application is complete and approved, and we will discharge your approved debt if and when we prevail in court," Cardona wrote. The filing asked the Supreme Court to lift a ruling handed down Monday by an appeals court that continued the pause on the debt-relief program. According to the Biden administration, around 26 million people applied for student-loan relief and 16 million of those applications have been approved.

☆ Why a Trump-appointed Texas judge blocked Biden's student-debt cancellation plan
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Trump-appointed Judge Mark Pittman struck down Biden's debt relief in Texas last week. They claimed that enacting broad student-loan forgiveness is an overreach of the authority and should require Congressional approval, while Biden has maintained one-time student-loan forgiveness is well within the administration's legal authority. The plaintiffs' standing to sueBoth of the plaintiffs who brought the Texas lawsuit hold student loans. The first plaintiff, Myra Brown, sued because her loans are commercially-held and therefore ineligible for Biden's debt relief, which requires the borrower to owe their debt directly to the federal government. Pittman said that Biden's Justice Department argument that the plaintiffs' standing does not exist is "untrue."

☆ 26 million borrowers have applied for student loan forgiveness. But GOP challenges put plan at risk
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

SKLA | iStock | Getty ImagesClose to 26 million Americans have applied for student loan forgiveness, and the Biden administration has already approved 16 million of the requests, the White House said Thursday. Yet its entire loan cancellation plan could be in jeopardy due to the legal challenges brought by Republicans, it warned. "If Republican officials get their way, tens of millions of Americans' monthly costs will rise dramatically when student loan payments resume next year," according to a statement by the administration. Most recently, a legal challenge from six GOP-led states temporarily stopped the administration from starting to forgive borrowers' debt. Tribe agreed, and said the other challengers also were on shaky legal standing.

☆ Biden's student loan forgiveness plan is on hold. Here are key issues borrowers need to know
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Porquenostudios | Istock | Getty ImagesFor those with student debt, the last few months may have given you whiplash. Here's what borrowers need to know about the development, and what it could mean for your student debt. They filed an appeal, and asked the court to stay the president's plan, which was supposed to start unfolding as early as this week, while their request is considered. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the states' emergency petition, leaving the Biden administration unable to start forgiving any student debt for now. The U.S. Department of Education had said borrowers who hold these FFEL, or Federal Family Education Loans, can take this step to qualify for its relief.

☆ Biden administration could start forgiving student debt as soon as Oct. 23
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Biden administration could start discharging millions of Americans' student debt as soon as this Sunday, Oct. 23. This is possible as some of the legal challenges brought against the sweeping policy by critics fail in courts. A taxpayers' group in Wisconsin earlier this week requested that the U.S. Supreme Court immediately block Biden's plan to cancel up to $20,000 in federal student debt for borrowers, but the court refused to do so. Judge Henry E. Autrey of the Federal District Court in St. Louis said the states did not have sufficient standing to sue. Although there are a number of other legal challenges to the president's plan outstanding, the Biden administration is moving forward with its plan to cancel student debt.

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