Supreme Court denies request to block Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness plan

On Friday, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett once again made the decision to decline blocking President Joe Biden’s which aims to cancel billions of dollars in student loan payments.

Two Indiana borrowers brought the challenge to the Supreme Court while a lower court is considering whether to lift a freeze it imposed on the program in a separate case.

Barrett denied an emergency request by the Indiana borrowers, who are being represented by a conservative legal group, to prevent the U.S. Department of Education from rolling out Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.  

Justice Barrett also denied a similar request on October 20th by a group from Wisconsin.

The debt forgiveness plan, announced by Biden in August, aims to send out checks of up to $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers earning under $125,000 per year, or $250,000 for married couples.

Borrowers who received Pell Grants to benefit lower-income college students would have up to $20,000 of their student debt written off.

In September, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said they expected the plan to cost $400 billion over the next 30 years. Outstanding student loan debt currently stands at approximately $1.73 trillion.

The Education Department is pushing past the lawsuit and has begun accepting applications for Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan.

Biden confirmed earlier this week that in excess of 26 million borrowers have already applied to the program and 16 million borrowers have already been approved for loan forgiveness.

The Education Department is not able to rubber stamp any loan forgiveness while the 8th Circuit’s temporary stay remains in effect.

The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put the policy on hold on Oct. 21 after six Republican-led states challenged the plan. This request is currently pending.