A Republican-led effort succeeded in blocking President Joe Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan in court just days before it was set to go into effect. The plan was aimed at providing student loan debt relief by offering decreased no-interest monthly payments for borrowers, forgiveness after 120 payments for those with original principal balances of $12,000 or less, and early forgiveness for some low-balance borrowers. The plan was part of a larger initiative announced by Biden in 2022 that aimed to erase up to $20,000 in student loan debt for tens of millions of borrowers.
U.S. District Judges John Ross in Missouri and Daniel Crabtree in Kansas, both appointees of former President Barack Obama, sided with Republican state attorneys general in thwarting Biden’s SAVE plan. Republicans celebrated the decision as a victory for the Constitution, arguing that Congress never gave Biden the authority to implement the student loan forgiveness plan. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson also praised the court ruling as a win against the Biden Administration’s alleged illegal student loan forgiveness.
Leaders of the nonprofit organization Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) denounced the court decisions as shocking and called for U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to indefinitely shut down the student loan repayment system to prevent chaos. SBPC Executive Director Mike Pierce criticized the actions of right-wing attorneys general, stating that their lawsuits had created chaos across the student loan system. SBPC Deputy Executive Director Persis Yu argued that the decision to block President Biden’s affordable repayment plan was a political maneuver designed to harm Biden and borrowers were merely collateral damage.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority had previously struck down a larger debt forgiveness plan following a lawsuit by Republican-led states. While the larger plan was invalidated last year, the SAVE plan remained untouched until this recent legal challenge. Republican states filed suit in March to block the SAVE plan, leading to the recent court decisions that halted its implementation. The White House had initially announced the SAVE plan in 2022 as part of Biden’s efforts to provide relief to student loan borrowers struggling with debt.
Despite the court rulings blocking the SAVE plan, the White House has not responded to requests for comment on the decisions. The legal battle over student loan forgiveness continues to be a contentious issue, with differing opinions on the authority of the President to implement such relief measures. Advocates for student borrowers are calling for protection of borrowers’ rights and access to affordable repayment options, while critics argue that the government does not have the authority to enact widespread student loan forgiveness without congressional approval. The fate of Biden’s student loan debt relief initiatives remains uncertain as legal challenges persist.
