The Court declined a request from the Department of Justice to lift an order from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which last month blocked the program. The plan is currently navigating the legal system following a challenge brought by over a dozen states. Under the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, eligible borrowers would see their payments on undergraduate loans reduced by half. Those with both undergraduate and graduate loans would pay a weighted average of between 5 percent and 10 percent of their income, based on the original principal balances of their loans. Payments would be recalculated annually and adjusted according to updated income and family size. The program represents a scaled-back approach to debt forgiveness after the Supreme Court last year struck down a plan that sought to cancel more than $400 billion in student loans. In that decision, the Court ruled 6-3 that the previous debt forgiveness program was unlawful. A lawsuit filed by Republican-led states challenges this year's attempt at debt cancellation, arguing that Biden is “unilaterally trying to impose an extraordinarily expensive and controversial policy that he could not get through Congress” by enacting the SAVE Plan. The legal filing added, “This latest attempt to sidestep the Constitution is only the most recent instance in a long but troubling pattern of the president relying on innocuous language from decades-old statutes to impose drastic, costly policy changes on the American people without their consent.” The Department of Education estimates that the SAVE Plan will cost approximately $156 billion over the next ten years. However, critics argue that the actual cost is $475 billion, contending that the administration’s lower estimate omits the $430 billion in debt that would have been forgiven under Biden’s earlier proposal. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, whose state is party to the lawsuit, celebrated the Court decision as a win. “This is a HUGE victory for the working Americans who won't have to foot the bill for the Biden-Harris Ivy League bailout,” Bailey wrote in a post on X.The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily halted President Joe Biden's latest effort to cancel billions of dollars in student loan debt.
🚨BREAKING: The Supreme Court unanimously upheld our court order BLOCKING @KamalaHarris and @JoeBiden' illegal student loan cancellation scheme.
This is a HUGE victory for the working Americans who won't have to foot the bill for the Biden-Harris Ivy League bailout. pic.twitter.com/iK8G1yORHt
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) August 28, 2024
