WASHINGTON − Three states − Alaska, South Carolina and Texas − have asked the Supreme Court to block President Joe Biden’s new student debt relief plan.
In an emergency filing Tuesday, the states said the high court should reverse a recent ruling by the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed a key part of the plan to resume.
The states argue the administration’s current effort is “every bit as unlawful” as Biden’s first attempt to wipe out student loan debt for tens of millions Americans, a move that was struck down by the Supreme Court last year.
“Due to the Administration’s intransigence, the Court must unfortunately step in again,” the states’ attorneys wrote in their filing.
In separate rulings last month, federal judges in Missouri and Kansas blocked parts of the president’s income-driven repayment program known as Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE.
That plan, which the Biden administration has tried to roll out quickly, has lowered monthly payments to $0 for millions of borrowers. The secretary of education frequently refers to it as the “most affordable repayment plan in history.”
While the district courts’ decisions didn’t reverse any of the roughly $5.5 billion in student debt cancellation the federal Education Department says it had already provided to more than 400,000 borrowers through SAVE, the rulings prevented the agency from moving ahead with full implementation of the program.
But, days later, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put on hold the ruling from the district judge in Kansas after the Biden administration appealed that decision.
As a result, the Education Department said it would continue cutting undergraduate loan payments and directed loan servicers it contracts with to move forward with changes under the SAVE plan.
The White House has said more than 20 million borrowers could ultimately benefit.
The states challenging the program say it will cost the public hundreds of billions of dollars unless the Supreme Court intervenes.
Contributing: Zachary Schermele and Reuters.