The Supreme Court refused a motion to revive the Biden administration's popular student loan repayment scheme on Wednesday, putting 8 million borrowers in limbo and hurting President Joe Biden's debt reduction efforts.
A pair of federal judges in Kansas and Missouri halted key parts of the SAVE Plan in June after Republican-led states filed lawsuits challenging the program.
“The Court expects that the Court of Appeals will render its decision with appropriate dispatch,” the Supreme Court said in an unsigned order, in declining to take up the Missouri case.
In another order on Wednesday, the justices rejected a request from another group of states to overturn a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals emergency rule that temporarily permitted aspects of the plan to remain in place.
Last year, the Supreme Court rejected an earlier plan that would have eliminated more than $400 billion in student loan debt.
The arguments: The Biden administration petitioned the high court to overturn the 8th Circuit order as “overbroad.” Due to commercial losses, the plaintiffs claim the scheme would hurt student loan servicer MOHELA.
The Justice Department attorneys' plea to dismiss the order stated, “The injunction blocks implementation of the rule for every borrower in the Nation — including millions who have no relationship to MOHELA.”