LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When LaTonya McNeal got an email inviting her to apply for student loan debt relief, she jumped at the chance.

“I was so excited,” said McNeal. “I said, ‘This is a dream come true. This is what I’ve been waiting on.’ I mean, I felt like a weight had been lifted.”

McNeal works three jobs and owes thousands in student loans from a few semesters studying social work at Jefferson Community and Technical College more than a decade ago, she said.

“I had to have loans in order to even pay off some of things that I need when I was there, like schooling, some of that wasn’t covered with the grants,” said McNeal. “I needed books and stuff like that.”

Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court released an opinion rejecting President Joe Biden’s plan that would have affected an estimated 43 million people by forgiving roughly $400 billion in student debt.

“Six states sued, arguing that the HEROES Act does not authorize the loan cancellation plan. We agree,” wrote Chief Justice John Robert in the 6-3 ruling.

“I’m really devastated because I kind of like felt like it was really happening, you know it was talked about so much and it was prolonged so much, I felt like it was going to really happen so I was kind of crushed by the results,” McNeal said.

Republican Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell called Biden’s plan a “raw deal for hardworking taxpayers,” and wrote:

“The President of the United States cannot hijack twenty-year-old emergency powers to pad the pockets of his high-earning base and make suckers out of working families who choose not to take on student debt. The Court’s decision today deals a heavy blow to Democrats’ distorted and outsized view of executive power.”

Loan repayments have been on pause since March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and are set to resume at the end of August.