Biden admin seeks to take student debt cancellation to Supreme Court

The Biden administration will soon ask the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision blocking the implementation of the president's student loan debt cancellation plan.

The Department of Justice on Thursday asked a federal appeals court to end the injunction on the plan's implementation while indicating in the same filing that it would turn to the Supreme Court to list a separate appeals court ruling, the Associated Press reported.

Biden announced his plan in late August to forgive student debt up to $10,000 for those earning less than $125,000 annually and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the plan will cost taxpayers approximately $400 billion.

Student loan debt cancellation has met a bevy of legal challenges, including an injunction from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals and a separate judicial order from a U.S. District Court judge in Texas last week.

"Whether the Program constitutes good public policy is not the role of this Court to determine," wrote District Court Judge Mark Pittman in his Nov. 10 ruling. "Still, no one can plausibly deny that it is either one of the largest delegations of legislative power to the executive branch, or one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States."