Supreme Court rejects Biden administration's plea to restart student loan debt relief

Aug. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Biden administration's request to cancel student debt for millions of borrowers during an appeals process, as more than a dozen Republican-led states challenge its legality.

In the brief unsigned order , the court said it "expected that the Court of Appeals will render its decision with appropriate dispatch." The order had no public dissents.

"The Supreme Court unanimously upheld our court order blocking Kamala Harris and Joe Biden 's illegal student loan cancellation scheme," Missouri attorney general Andrew Bailey wrote Wednesday in a post on X.

"This is a huge victory for the working Americans who won't have to foot the bill for the Biden-Harris Ivy League bailout," he added.

The Supreme Court order was in response to the Justice Department's emergency appeal after a federal appeals court blocked the program, known as the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, Plan last month. The Biden administration vowed Wednesday to fight on.

"Our administration will continue to aggressively defend the SAVE Plan -- which has helped over 8 million borrowers access lower monthly payments, including 4.5 million borrowers who have had a zero dollar payment each month. And, we won't stop fighting against Republican-elected officials' efforts to raise costs on millions of their own constituents' student loan payments," a White House spokesperson said in response to the order.

In July, the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the request by seven GOP-led states to block further loan forgiveness, stating that the Department of Education had exceeded its authority in setting repayment terms.

The Biden administration then turned to the Supreme Court with an emergency intervention to temporarily lift the order.

"The states fail to justify allowing that extraordinary injunction to continue to harm millions of borrowers while this appeal is litigated," U.S. Solicitor Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in court filings before the justices rejected the request Wednesday that would have allowed the program to continue during appeal.

Under the SAVE Plan, monthly payments and debt would be reduced for certain borrowers at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars over the next 10 years. The Education Department already had granted $5.5 billion in relief to 414,000 borrowers before the program was put on hold.

The Education Department estimates it has forgiven $168 billion in debt for more than 4.7 million Americans. It estimates the SAVE plan would cost nearly $156 billion over a decade.

As litigation continues, SAVE Plan borrowers are not required to pay principal or interest as Biden administration lawyers argue that the "extraordinary injunction has scrambled the department's administration of loans for millions of borrowers," creating "widespread confusion and uncertainty ."

The White House has repeatedly pushed its program to cancel student debt despite hitting legal roadblocks.

Last summer, the Supreme Court rejected Biden's plan that would have offered up to $20,000 in student loan relief to millions of borrowers. In February, the White House announced a new plan that would have gone into effect July 1. Two federal judges blocked parts of that plan one week earlier.

In Missouri, a judge ruled the administration "lacks the authority" to forgive loans as part of the Income-Contingent Repayment plan and that doing so would "likely harm Missouri" by cutting into administrative fees.

A judge in Kansas blocked parts of the plan in June as both states also filed separate lawsuits. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach accused the Biden administration of illegally bypassing Congress and forcing taxpayers to pay off the student loans of other Americans.

"Blue-collar Kansas workers who didn't go to college shouldn't have to pay off the student loans of New Yorkers with gender studies degrees," he said.