Last year, six states—Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina argued in a lawsuit that Biden exceeded his presidential authority, prompting the Biden administration to ask the justices to vacate the injunction entered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Court. 

On Wednesday, lawyers for the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to uphold its decision to forgive billions in student loan debt, arguing that it was acting within its “executive authority.” 

In the court brief filed, it states that the “plan falls squarely within the plain text of the HEROES Act.” 

A “central purpose of the statute is to authorize the Secretary to grant student-loan-related relief to at-risk borrowers because of a national emergency — precisely what the Secretary did here,” lawyers wrote.

The U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement Wednesday that the administration “remains committed to fighting to deliver essential student debt relief to tens of millions of Americans—We remain confident in our legal authority to adopt this program that will ensure the financial harms caused by the pandemic don’t drive borrowers into delinquency and default. We are unapologetically committed to helping borrowers recover from the pandemic and providing working families with the breathing room they need to prepare for student loan payments to resume.”

The U.S. Department of Education extended student loan repayment until there’s a Supreme Court ruling—oral arguments for the case are scheduled for February.