Supreme Court, for now, keeps block on revamped Biden student debt plan

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Wednesday maintained a temporary pause on a new effort by President Joe Biden to wipe out tens and perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars of student debt.

The plan was part of the president’s piecemeal approach to forgiving student debt after the Supreme Court rejected a more ambitious proposal last year that would have canceled more than $400 billion in loans. Biden has instead pursued more limited measures directed at certain types of borrowers, including people on disability and public service workers, and refined existing programs.

The Supreme Court’s order leaves in limbo millions of borrowers enrolled in the Biden administration’s SAVE program, which ties monthly payments to household size and earnings. The plan was upended by an appeals court decision last month.

The justices’ order, in response to an emergency application by the Biden administration, was one of two related to the program released Wednesday. The brief order did not give reasons, which is typical, and no public dissents were noted.

The decision is the latest blow to the Biden administration’s debt-relief efforts, which Republican-led states have repeatedly challenged.

The justices’ order focused on a lawsuit that had reached the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in St. Louis. In mid-July, the appeals court issued a broad hold on the program, granting a request by a group of Republican-led states to pause the plan while the courts considered the merits of the case.

That case could soon make its way back to the justices, who had indicated that they expected the lower court to act swiftly on the matter.

A White House spokesperson said the Biden administration would continue to defend its debt-relief plan in court.

“We won’t stop fighting against Republican elected officials’ efforts to raise costs on millions of their own constituents’ student loan payments,” the spokesperson, Angelo Fernández Hernández, said.

The Biden administration had argued that the new program was authorized by a 1993 law that allowed the secretary of education to fashion “income-contingent repayment” plans based on the borrower’s annual earnings.

Over the years, the secretary has invoked the law several times to relax repayment requirements. The latest plan, the subject of the Supreme Court’s order, was the most generous under that law

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.