Joe Biden spent four years trying to make you pay off someone else's college debt.
Now a federal appeals court has buried his biggest attempt – permanently.
Here's what Biden promised 7 million borrowers that he had no legal right to promise.
Biden Built This Student Loan Forgiveness Scheme the Day After the Supreme Court Said No
Biden's SAVE plan wasn't a new idea. It was a workaround.
In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Biden couldn't cancel $430 billion in student debt. The ruling was clear: only Congress has that power.
Biden announced the SAVE plan ten days later.
Instead of canceling debt in one shot, SAVE slashed monthly payments to as low as $0, covered all unpaid interest so balances never grew, and put borrowers on track for full forgiveness in as little as ten years.
The Penn Wharton Budget Model put the price tag at $475 billion.
That's $475 billion shifted from borrowers who voluntarily took out loans – many of them graduate students with high earning potential – onto the backs of 87 percent of American adults who have no student loan debt at all.
The 8th Circuit Just Killed Biden's SAVE Plan for Good
Seven Republican-led states filed suit immediately.
Courts started blocking the plan in 2024. In February 2025, the 8th Circuit issued a full injunction, ruling that the Education Secretary had gone well beyond her legal authority by designing a program where loans were "largely forgiven rather than repaid." The Trump administration then reached a permanent settlement with Missouri in December 2025 to wind the program down entirely.
Then a district court judge tried to dismiss the case – refusing to enter the settlement.
The 8th Circuit stepped in Monday and reversed him.
The ruling directs the lower court to enter the December settlement as final judgment, effective immediately.
The Department of Education must stop enrolling new borrowers, deny all pending applications, and transition current SAVE enrollees into legal repayment plans.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon didn't mince words: "For years, the Biden Administration used so-called 'loan forgiveness' promises to win votes, but federal courts repeatedly ruled that those actions were unlawful."
Why Courts Ruled Biden's Student Loan Plan Was Always Illegal
Biden tried this three separate times.
First came the $430 billion blanket forgiveness – struck down by the Supreme Court in 2023. Then came SAVE, dressed up as a repayment plan but functioning as a back-door cancellation scheme. The House Budget Committee tallied Biden's total loan forgiveness attempts at $1 trillion across his term.
Every time a court said no, Biden found a new angle.
Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent put it plainly after the December settlement: Biden "sought to unlawfully shift student loan debt onto American taxpayers, many of whom either never took out a loan to finance their postsecondary education or never even went to college themselves, simply for a political win to prop up a failing Administration."
What Replaces SAVE
Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act created a legitimate replacement: the Repayment Assistance Plan, launching July 1, 2026.
RAP ties payments to 1 to 10 percent of a borrower's adjusted gross income on a sliding scale.
It requires 30 years of payments – not the 10-year shortcut Biden was selling.
That's the difference between a real repayment program and a scheme designed to buy votes with other people's money.
Biden sold young borrowers a lie. Courts proved it three times. The Trump administration is cleaning up the mess and putting student lending on legal footing for the first time in years – and every taxpayer who never set foot on a college campus just won.
Sources:
- Bonny Chu, "Federal Court Terminates Biden-Era Student Loan Plan Affecting Millions Nationwide," Fox Business, March 10, 2026.
- U.S. Department of Education, "U.S. Department of Education Announces Agreement with Missouri to End Biden Administration's Illegal SAVE Plan," ed.gov, December 2025.
- U.S. Department of Education, "U.S. Department of Education Continues to Improve Federal Student Loan Repayment Options, Addresses Illegal Biden Administration Actions," ed.gov, July 2025.
- House Budget Committee, "Chairman Arrington on the Supreme Court Upholding the Pause on the Biden-Harris Student Loan Scheme," budget.house.gov, August 2024.
- Robert Farrington, "SAVE Student Loan Plan Officially Ended By Court Order," The College Investor, March 10, 2026.
