Federal Judge Strikes Down Biden Student-Loan ‘Forgiveness.’

A federal judge in Texas on Thursday blocked President Biden’s student-loan “forgiveness” plan in response to a lawsuit from the Job Creators Network Foundation (JCNF).

The conservative advocacy group filed a suit in October arguing that the Biden administration violated federal procedures by not allowing borrowers to provide public comment before the program was unveiled.

Judge Mark Pittman of the Northern District of Texas called the plan an “unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power” and noted the program failed to go through standard regulatory processes.

“No one can plausibly deny that it is either one of the largest delegations of legislative power to the executive branch, or one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States,” Pittman wrote in a 26-page opinion.

Biden planned to “forgive” up to $10,000 in federal student debt for those making under $125,000 annually and households making under $250,000, as well as relieving $20,000 in debt for Pell grant recipients. The executive action would transfer the cost of the loans to the American public.

The president’s order would cost $300 billion if enacted, according to an estimate by the Wharton School of business at the University of Pennsylvania.

JCNF sued on behalf of two borrowers, one who had private student loans that were ineligible for the “forgiveness” and the other who wasn’t a recipient of a Pell Grant and therefore didn’t qualify for an extra $10,000 in forgiveness. Pittman found that the plaintiffs had not been allowed to voice their disagreement with the specifics of the program under the usual regulatory process.

The comments come one day after Biden floated the idea of investigating Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.

Elaine Parker, the president of Job Creators Network Foundation, responded to the ruling in a statement on Thursday, saying the decision “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,” Parker added. “We hope that the court’s decision today will lay the groundwork for real solutions to the student loan crisis.”

Last month, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the student loan “forgiveness” plan. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit granted an administrative stay in response to a challenge to the order by a coalition of six Republican-led states.

The court’s order instructed the Biden administration not to begin “forgiving” student-loan debt as it considers a request for an injunction from the six states.