Biden-Harris admin demands Supreme Court allow student loan cancellation plan to go ahead despite injunction

The Biden-Harris administration has filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court to urge the high court to temporarily lift a lower court ruling that prevents the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan from moving forward.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote to the court, "The rule is a straightforward exercise of the Department’s express statutory authority to set the parameters of income-contingent repayment plans — just as it has done for three decades."

The program was implemented in 2023 after the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s plan to forgive thousands of dollars in student loans per borrower. The second phase of the plan was set to take place in July, The Hill reported, dropping payments from 10 percent of discretionary income down to 5 percent and offering full loan forgiveness for certain groups of borrowers. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the program from going forward after Republican attorneys general from states across the nation challenged it.

Prelogar wrote that the appeals court decision "has now issued a sweeping universal injunction blocking the rule’s other challenged provisions — as well as any forgiveness under the preexisting plan, even under the longer pre-rule timelines adopted in 2015."

She said that the injunction is "premised on a demonstrably erroneous theory of standing," the states "are unlikely to success on the merits," that the appeals court’s injunction is "vastly overbroad," and "the equities overwhelmingly favor vacating the injunction."

Prelogar said that if the Supreme Court doesn’t intervene in the emergency docket, they should take up the case on merits and expedite consideration so that oral arguments can begin in the fall.

The court ordered that the challengers of the plan respond by Monday afternoon. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey wrote on Monday that the group of challengers "filed our brief today reminding the Court that they already sided with us on this issue once."

The filing stated that the court should "reject the Government’s aggressive attempt to use an emergency application to vacate the Eighth Circuit’s sound ruling."

"Indeed, given the Government’s failure to follow settled legal principles, this Court would be justified in issuing a quick opinion that rejects the Government’s statutory position, just like the Court did in Alabama Association of Realtors. Otherwise, the States do not oppose certiorari before judgment."

"If the Court grants certiorari, the States are fine with the Government’s request for a November argument, but would strongly prefer the second week of the November sitting in light of Counsel of Record’s October litigation schedule, which counsel will explain to the Clerk’s Office if this Court grants certiorari."

Erasing student loans was a campaign promise of Biden's when he ran in 2020. Many said that he did not have the authority to make that promise or enact that kind of legislation without Congress. Parts of his plan have been implemented anyway.