President Joe Biden has no secret of his determination to fulfill a 2020 campaign promise by forgiving vast amounts of student loan debt, but the path to doing so has been fraught with multiple legal challenges.

On Wednesday, much to the chagrin of Biden and Vice President -- now Democratic Party presidential candidate -- Kamala Harris, the U.S. Supreme Court declined -- at least for the time being -- to permit implementation of a plan designed to cut payments for borrowers, as the New York Post reports.

SCOTUS says no

As the Associated Press explains, the Biden administration had requested that a lower court's injunction halting the forgiveness plan while lawsuits filed in opposition to its legality made their way through the courts.

The Justice Department hoped that the high court would allow implementation after the 8^th Circuit Court of Appeals put at least a temporary stop to the program earlier this year.

At issue is the Biden scheme, known as the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, which would offer debtors a faster route to cancellation of their loans as well as cut monthly income-based payments down to just 5% of a borrower's discretionary income.

Further, under the terms of the program, borrowers would not need to make payments at all if they earned less than 225% of the federal poverty line, a scenario opponents argue is a costly and unconstitutional handout meant to curry favor for the Democrats ahead of November's presidential election.

However, the high court issued an unsigned order with no declared dissents stating that with regard to ongoing litigation initiated by Republican-led states, it has an expectation that “the Court of Appeals will render its decision with appropriate dispatch.”

Legal challenges make way through courts

There have been two distinct legal challenges to implementation of the program, marking what has been a complicated legal path to Wednesday's decision.

Back in June, separate decisions were rendered by judges in Kansas and Missouri that put a stop to much of the forgiveness plan, though it did not impact debts that had already been erased.

The 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the department could move forward with the part of the plan that offered a reduction in monthly payments, something Republican-led plaintiffs asked the Supreme Court to overturn.

However, once the 8^th Circuit ruled that the entire plan needed to be halted, no further intervention on the prior request was needed, as the Supreme Court noted separately on Wednesday.

Reactions pour in

The Biden White House expressed disappointment over high court's decision, with spokesperson Angelo Fernandez Hernandez saying, as The Hill noted, “Our Administration will continue to aggressively defend the SAVE Plan – which has helped over 8 million borrowers access lower monthly payments, including 4.5 million borrowers who have had a zero dollar payment each month. And we won't stop fighting against Republican elected officials' efforts to raise costs on millions of their own constituents' student loan payments.”

Biden Education Secretary Miguel Cardona pledged to resume the battle over the plan despite Wednesday's ruling, telling CBS News, “We're going to continue to fight for borrowers. Student debt shouldn't be a life sentence.”

On the other side of the coin, lawyer Sheng Li of the New Civil Liberties Alliance heralded the high court's action, saying, “There was no basis to lift the injunction because the Department of Education's newest loan-cancellation program is just as unlawful as the one the Court struck down a year ago,” echoing the sentiments of millions who have been watching these cases unfold.