On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Robert Pittman of the Northern District of Texas blocked President Joe Biden’s implementation of a student loan forgiveness plan that would put taxpayers on the hook for $400 billion.
Pittman called the program an “unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power” and determined that it “must be vacated.”
He argues the program is an executive usurpation of legislative authority.
“We are not ruled by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a phone,” wrote Pittman. “Instead, we are ruled by a Constitution that provides for three distinct and independent branches of government.”
The U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona directed the U.S. Department of Justice to appeal Pittman’s ruling, explaining, “We are disappointed in the decision of the Texas court to block loan relief moving forward. Amidst efforts to block our debt relief program, we are not standing down.”
Fox Business explains that Biden’s student loan forgiveness calls for “one-time student loan forgiveness of up to $10,000 in eligible federal student loans or up to $20,000 for those who used Pell Grant loans in college. To qualify, federal student loan borrowers must make less than $125,000 per year or $250,000 for married couples.”
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will now decide the future of the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan.
