A federal judge dismissed Monday a lawsuit filed by conservative groups seeking to stop the forgiveness of student loans for 804,000 borrowers.

Why it matters: This decision is a victory for student loan borrowers, and for President Biden who had promised to pursue debt relief following the Supreme Court decision to overturn his administration’s plan to forgive loans last month.

Details: The lawsuit has been filed in federal court by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, on behalf of Cato Institute and Mackinac Center.

The federal government is not legally allowed to forgive debts, they argued.

Sheng Li is an attorney with the New Civil Liberties Alliance. She said in an email that the district court didn’t rule on the merits, but instead stated that Cato and Mackinac weren’t the proper parties to bring the case.

We disagree with the court’s decision regarding legal standing, and we are reviewing legal options for our client.

Last month, the Department of Education announced that administrative fixes were made to existing income-driven repayment programs.

The administration stated that it was correcting “historical mistakes” where qualifying payments were not properly taken into account in order to bring borrowers closer towards qualifying for debt relief.

After 20 or 25 years of making payments, the remaining balance on student loans can be wiped out under existing income-driven payment plans.

The administration used partial and late payments as well as periods of deferment or forbearance to get some borrowers up to this threshold.

The White House announced Monday that 804,000 students who have been paying back their student loans for more than 20 years would start seeing their debts canceled.

All remaining federal student loans for more than 614,000 students will be cancelled.

What he says: “Because errors and administrative failings of the student loans system, which began long before my taking office, more than 804,000 borrowers have never received the credit and forgiveness they deserved – even though they made payments for decades,” Biden stated in a Monday statement. “I was determined that this injustice would be corrected.”