By Jay Clemons
President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness was struck down Thursday by a federal judge who declared the president’s executive order unlawful.
District Judge Mark Pittman ruled that Biden’s program, which would have provided borrowers with up to $20,000 in student loan relief, was “an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’ legislative power.”
Conversely, the Biden administration previously argued the president had the authority to forgive student loans under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003.
However, Pittman rejected this argument, asserting there was never any “clear congressional authorization” for the loan-forgiveness program.
Soon after Pittman’s ruling, Elaine Parker, president of Job Creators Network Foundation, released the following statement.
“The court has correctly ruled in favor of our motion and deemed the Biden student loan program illegal. The judge criticized the Biden Administration program, calling it ‘one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States.’
“This ruling protects the rule of law which requires all Americans to have their voices heard by their federal government. This attempted illegal student loan bailout would have done nothing to address the root cause of unaffordable tuition: greedy and bloated colleges that raise tuition far more than inflation year after year while sitting on $700 billion in endowments.
“We hope that the court’s decision today will lay the ground work for real solutions to the student loan crisis,” added Parker.
As Newsmax chronicled in September, the Biden administration’s $400 billion program would have covered borrowers making less than $125,000 per year, or $250,000 for married couples.
Also, the lower-income borrowers from the Pell Grant relief program reportedly could have as much as $20,000 of student loan debt forgiven.
The Education Department’s initial estimates had the loan forgiveness program impacting 8 million borrowers automatically, while others would have had to apply for forgiveness.
In August, the White House explained the forgiveness program would combat the “skyrocketing cumulative federal student loan debt — $1.6 trillion and rising for more than 45 million borrowers — is a significant burden on America’s middle class.”