Judge declares Biden's student loan forgiveness unconstitutional

A federal court in Texas called the plan "one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history," comparing it to "tyranny."

Published by

Juan Carlos Téllez

11 de noviembre, 2022

Topics:

University debt

A Texas judge on Thursday struck down Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, denouncing the executive branch's overreach in approving the measure by bypassing Congress.

U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman struck down the president's plan, ruling that Biden overstepped his authority to the point of "tyranny."

In this country, we are not ruled by an all-powerful executive with a pen and a phone. Instead, we are ruled by a Constitution that provides for three distinct and independent branches of government. As President James Madison warned, “the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

The court called Biden's action one of the most flagrant overreaches of authority in U.S. history by the executive branch.

Whether the Program constitutes good public policy is not the role of this Court to determine. Still, 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.

For this reason, the ruling, which can be consulted below, considers that "the Program is thus an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power and must be vacated."

gov.uscourts.txnd.368635.37.0 by VozMedia

White House in "total disagreement" with the justice system

The Department of Education already had Biden's student debt aid program blocked under a temporary order from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. However, the Texas court decision goes further by permanently prohibiting the program from being carried out.

The Biden Administration filed an appeal that night. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration "strongly disagrees" with the ruling and will continue to defend the debt forgiveness program in court.

Several Republican Party governors called for the withdrawal of the plan, which they labeled unconstitutional. Even Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi acknowledged that President Biden did not have the power to execute the measure, which seeks to spare 20 million college students from repaying up to $20,000 in loans granted by the federal government.