The Biden administration Friday filed an application with the US Supreme Court to vacate an injunction preventing the federal student loan forgiveness plan from going into effect. The application is an appeal of the November 15 order by the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to temporarily suspend the federal student loan forgiveness plan while it is litigated on its merits in lower courts.

In the application, Elizabeth Prelogar, Solicitor General of the United States, contends that the Court of Appeals was wrong in granting the injunction because it failed to analyze the merits of the underlying claim against the loan forgiveness plan. Prelogar argues that to grant an injunction, the court had to determine that the claim was likely to succeed, something it did not do in its reasons. The application further states that the Court of Appeals injunction “leaves millions of economically vulnerable borrowers in limbo, uncertain about the size of their debt and unable to make financial decisions with an accurate understanding of their future repayment obligations.”

A federal court in Texas also blocked the loan forgiveness plan on November 11.

Besides asking the Supreme Court to vacate the injunction, the application also asks that the court set the case for expedited briefing and argument. The application was submitted to Justice Kavanaugh, who ordered that the respondents submit a response to the application by Wednesday, November 23. Justice Kavanaugh may decide the issue on his own or refer the question to a panel of all the justices of the court.