Supreme Court student loan showdown ignites, with states urging stop to Biden plan

Six Republican-led states asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to reject President Joe Biden's bid to cancel billions of dollars in student debt, drawing the battle lines at the nation's highest court against a plan that could affect 40 million U.S. residents.

The six states are Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina and argue the Biden plan violates the separation of powers by attempting to enact a massive debt relief program that is estimated to cost nearly $400 billion over the next 30 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

"The administration is once again invoking the COVID-19 pandemic to assert power far beyond anything Congress could have conceived," the states told the high court in a 42-page brief. "While President Biden publicly declares the pandemic over, the secretary and Department of Education are using COVID-19 to justify the mass debt cancellation."