President Joe Biden requested the Supreme Court on August 23 to reinstate a $475 billion student loan relief plan that had been blocked by an appeals court two weeks prior. The emergency application was filed on August 13 after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit temporarily halted the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan on August 9. The case, known as Biden v. Missouri, has been heavily litigated.
The SAVE plan, proposed by U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in August 2022, aimed to reduce monthly payments for eligible borrowers and expedite loan forgiveness for others. Approximately 8 million borrowers had enrolled in the program. However, the plan was not finalized when the Supreme Court invalidated the federal government’s previous $400 billion student loan forgiveness plan in Biden v. Nebraska in June 2023.
The Eighth Circuit found that Missouri and six other states challenging the plan could likely demonstrate that it violated the major questions doctrine, which presumes that Congress does not delegate significant policy questions to government agencies. The court’s injunction temporarily blocked the federal government from forgiving principal or interest on outstanding student loans, as well as paused provisions related to interest calculation and income-based repayment.
The conflict between the Eighth Circuit’s injunction and a previous order by the 10th Circuit in Alaska v. U.S. Department of Education led to further legal complications. President Biden’s filing argued for vacating or narrowing the Eighth Circuit’s injunction to allow the SAVE plan to proceed. The government urged the Supreme Court to expedite the case if it chose not to address the injunction directly.
The controversy surrounding nationwide injunctions, criticized by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, has added complexity to the legal proceedings. The government’s application is currently pending on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket, with a ruling expected in due course. Please provide a different version.
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