The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to reinstate President Joe Biden’s recent plan to forgive the student debt of millions of borrowers, instead allowing the lawsuits to be heard in lower courts.

The judges refused to accept an application by the administration to annul a federal appeals court will hold space on the agenda in a lawsuit brought by Republican-led states, after a document on the court’s website. It was not stated whether judges disagreed.

When Biden’s program to forgive billions of dollars in student debt through the HEROES Act of 2023 was struck down by the nation’s highest court, the administration revised the plan to replace it with the Higher Education Act. The original plan called for up to $20,000 in student loans to be forgiven per borrower earning less than $125,000 per year.

Several Republican-led states have filed lawsuits against the new plan. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously stayed the SAVE plan because it was “even larger in scope” than the original proposal.

Bloomberg reported that the Biden administration has forgiven about $168.5 billion in student loan debt through July, mostly through a program that applies to borrowers who work in certain public service jobs.

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