President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court to halt several cases that were filed during now-former President Joe Biden’s term.
The cases center around Biden’s executive actions on student loan forgiveness and the environment, Fox News reported.
“Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris filed several motions Friday asking the court to halt proceedings in the student loan case and three environmental cases while the new administration will “reassess the basis for and soundness” of Biden’s policies,” the report said.
“The Supreme Court was expected to hear oral arguments for these cases in March or April and issue decisions later this term. But Trump’s DOJ requested that the high court halt all written brief deadlines, which would put them on indefinite hold,” he said.
More than 5 million students had their debt canceled by the Department of Education under Biden but had faced several court challenges.
Some Republican state attorney generals said that the president acted outside of his authority by issuing the student loan forgiveness without Congress.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked Biden’s ‘borrow defense’ rule, which canceled the debt of students who were defrauded by their schools, arguing that the rule had “numerous statutory and regulatory shortcomings.”
The Supreme Court had agreed to hear arguments in the cases, but now the Trump administration has asked the court to freeze the deadlines, indicating that it is likely his administration will rescind the rules, thereby rendering the cases moot.
“The three environmental cases have to do with regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency during the Biden administration that were challenged,” Fox said.
Trump has also taken flamethrower to Biden’s radical left “climate” agenda with a series of executive orders aimed at boosting domestic fossil fuel energy production.
The series of orders also contain a declaration of an “energy emergency,” which should protect the administration from some, but not all, legal actions aimed at stopping new drilling and other energy-related production.
“The breadth of the decisions may well be the most dramatic shift in U.S. energy policy since the response to the ban on oil exports from Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in 1973,” Just the News reported.
After being sworn into office, Biden signed several executive orders, including rejoining the Paris Agreement, a nonbinding international accord aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Following that, his climate agenda unfolded through a series of
regulatory actions over the past four years. The outlet added that these included new appliance efficiency standards, a halt on liquefied natural gas export permits, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) power plant regulations.
Trump’s “energy emergency” plan emphasizes support for mining critical minerals essential for national security, emergency approvals for energy resources on public lands, and streamlining the development of energy infrastructure. In a separate executive order, Trump outlined guidelines for the development of energy resources in Alaska.
Another order promotes exploration and production related to offshore drilling, reversing one of Biden’s last actions against fossil fuels. This order also cancels several executive orders related to climate that were put in place by Biden. Additionally, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement.
Jeff Reynolds, senior editor for Restoration News, suggested that Trump’s sudden and clear rejection of Biden’s climate agenda might stem from hindsight. While Trump recognized the significance of energy and a supportive regulatory environment, Reynolds noted that he seemed more patient during his first term.
However, this patience changed after witnessing the extent to which the left would act once Biden took office.
“Now he knows where the bodies are buried, and he’s ready to take a meat axe to everything that got in his way the first time,” Reynolds told Just the News.