mark pittman hon

=<div>an 11 22 ah</div><div>https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/clearly-no-jurisdiction-law-professor-rips-trump-judges-ruling-on-bidens-student-debt-relief-program/</div><div>Two years have passed since former President Donald Trump was decisively voted out of office, yet his influence on the federal judiciary remains. That includes not only the three socially conservative justices Trump appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court (Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett), but also, all the lower federal court justices Trump appointed with the help of Sen. Mitch McConnell.One of them was Judge Mark Pittman, a federal district judge in Texas. Pittman has ordered President Joe Biden’s program for forgiving student loan debt to be discontinued. And according to legal expert Laurence H. Tribe, the Trump-appointed judge has seriously overreached.In an <a href="https://verdict.justia.com/2022/11/14/a-constitutional-republic-demands-a-constrained-judiciary" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">article published by Verdict Justia</a> on November 14, the Harvard Law School professor notes that Biden’s program “was promulgated by the U.S. Department of Education pursuant to congressional legislation.”READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/debt-relief-for-me-but-not-for-thee-why-opponents-of-student-debt-forgiveness-are-hypocrites-report/" target="self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">'Debt relief for me but not for thee': Why some critics of Biden’s student debt program are 'hypocrites'</a>“Judge Pittman held the program null and void and ordered it dismantled,” Tribe observes. “In so doing, he became the first federal judge to conclude that he had jurisdiction to review the program’s validity at the behest of those its opponents had recruited to challenge it. And he went much farther than the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit had gone when it issued an emergency order temporarily directing the Department to stop processing loan discharges while it reviewed a federal district court’s decision that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the program’s legality.”Tribe continues, “The district court had concluded that the plaintiffs, six Republican-led states, lacked ‘standing’ to pursue their challenge to the program because they could not show that they were genuinely harmed by it. In contrast, Judge Pittman’s decree permanently ‘vacating’ the program in its entirety left the (Biden) Administration no choice but to stop taking loan forgiveness applications altogether on its official website while the Justice Department filed an immediate appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.”According to Tribe, Pittman “clearly had no jurisdiction even to hear the merits of the plaintiffs’ claims, much less to dismantle the program.”“By doing so, he usurped the power of both Congress and the executive branch,” Tribe explains. “The central defining feature of the federal judicial power which flows from Article III of the Constitution is that the courts Congress establishes pursuant to that article may exercise only the power to resolve actual ‘Cases’ and ‘Controversies.’ This ‘cases and controversies’ requirement, as explained by the Supreme Court from its inception, entails the fundamental limitation that the Article III ‘judicial power’ is available only to redress concrete injuries suffered by those who invoke it.”READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/they-got-nothin-elizabeth-warren/" target="self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">'They got nothin': Elizabeth Warren torches Republicans for fighting against student debt relief</a>Tribe argues that Pittman’s ruling was inconsistent with what the U.S. Constitution says about “governmental power.”“Judge Pittman stepped completely outside this judicial role as constrained by the Supreme Court’s standing doctrine,” Tribe writes. “He thereby not only injured the many lower-income and middle-income borrowers who have justifiably relied on the (Biden) Administration’s program of debt relief, but also — and more importantly — further undermined the already frayed rule of law in the United States and contributed to the erosion of the indispensable role of the independent federal judiciary in preserving our constitutional republic.”Tribe adds, “To add insult to injury, Judge Pittman adorned his adventure in what conservatives used to decry as ‘legislating from the bench’ by righteously insisting that he was just ‘interpreting the law’ as a ‘mere machine’ — an image of bloodless passivity that makes Chief Justice John Roberts’ description of a judge’s role as merely that of an umpire, calling balls and strikes, appear downright activist.”READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/student-loan-forgiveness/" target="self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Red states are lining up to stop Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan</a><div>
</div><div>=</div><div>11 22</div><div>Mark Timothy Pittman (born 1975)<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-Questionnaire-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a> is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_judge" title="United States federal judge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States district judge</a> of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_District_Court_for_the_Northern_District_of_Texas" title="United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas</a> and former Judge of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Court_of_Appeals" class="mw-redirect" title="Texas Court of Appeals" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Texas Court of Appeals</a>.<div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table;"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="margin: 0px; position: absolute; opacity: 0; z-index: -1; display: none;" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center; direction: ltr;"><h2 id="mw-toc-heading" style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; display: inline;">Contents</h2><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox" style="cursor: pointer;" /></div><ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#Early_life_and_education" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1Early life and education</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#Legal_career" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2Legal career</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#Judicial_career" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3Judicial career</a><ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#State_judicial_service" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.1State judicial service</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#Federal_judicial_service" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.2Federal judicial service</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#Notable_rulings" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3.3Notable rulings</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#Memberships" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4Memberships</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">6External links</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Early life and education[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mark_T.Pittman&action=edit&section=1&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Early life and education" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a>]</h2>Pittman was born in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Spring,Texas" title="Big Spring, Texas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Big Spring, Texas</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a> He received his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Arts" title="Bachelor of Arts" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Bachelor of Arts</a>, magna cum laude, from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_A%26M_University" title="Texas A&M University" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Texas A&M University</a> and his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juris_Doctor" title="Juris Doctor" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Juris Doctor</a> from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_University_of_Texas_School_of_Law" class="mw-redirect" title="The University of Texas School of Law" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The University of Texas School of Law</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-WHBio-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Legal career[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mark_T.Pittman&action=edit&section=2&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Legal career" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none; white-space: nowrap;">edit</a>]</h2>After graduating from law school, Pittman clerked for Judge <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldon_Brooks_Mahon" title="Eldon Brooks Mahon" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Eldon Brooks Mahon</a> of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_District_Court_for_the_Northern_District_of_Texas" title="United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas</a>. He then worked as an associate at Kelly, Hart & Hallman LLP. From 2004 to 2007, Pittman was a trial attorney in the Commercial Litigation Branch of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice_Civil_Division" title="United States Department of Justice Civil Division" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States Department of Justice Civil Division</a>. Pittman then served as an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistant_United_States_Attorney" title="Assistant United States Attorney" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Assistant United States Attorney</a> for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_District_Court_for_the_Northern_District_of_Texas" title="United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Northern District of Texas</a>. Pittman later worked as a Senior Attorney at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Deposit_Insurance_Corporation" title="Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation</a>. Before becoming a judge, Pittman was an Enforcement Attorney with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Securities_and_Exchange_Commission" title="U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States Securities and Exchange Commission</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Worth,Texas" title="Fort Worth, Texas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Fort Worth</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-WHBio-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Judicial career[</h2><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">State judicial service[</h3>Pittman was a Judge on the State's 352nd District Court, based in Fort Worth, Texas. In 2017, he was appointed by Governor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Abbott" title="Greg Abbott" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Greg Abbott</a> to be a Justice of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Courts_of_Appeals" title="Texas Courts of Appeals" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Texas's Second Court of Appeals</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-WHBio-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-Abbott-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a> He served in that capacity until he was appointed a federal judge in 2019.<h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Federal judicial service[</h3>On January 16, 2019, President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump" title="Donald Trump" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Donald Trump</a> announced his intent to nominate Pittman to serve as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_judge" title="United States federal judge" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">United States district judge</a> for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_District_Court_for_the_Northern_District_of_Texas" title="United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas</a>. On January 17, 2019, his nomination was sent to the Senate. President Trump nominated Pittman to a seat vacated by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_H.McBryde" title="John H. McBryde" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">John H. McBryde</a>, who took <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senior_status" title="Senior status" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">senior status</a> on October 9, 2018.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a> On March 5, 2019, a hearing on his nomination was held before the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Committee_on_the_Judiciary" title="United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Senate Judiciary Committee</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a> On April 4, 2019, his nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a> On July 30, 2019, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate" title="United States Senate" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Senate</a> voted 54–34 to invoke <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloture" title="Cloture" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">cloture</a> on his nomination.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a> On July 31, 2019, his nomination was confirmed by a 54–36 vote.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a> He received his judicial commission on August 5, 2019.<h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Notable rulings[</h3>On November 8, 2021, Pittman ruled that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines" title="United Airlines" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United Airlines</a> can impose a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccination_mandates_in_the_United_States" title="COVID-19 vaccination mandates in the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">COVID-19 vaccine mandate</a> on its employees while only providing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leave_of_absence" class="mw-redirect" title="Leave of absence" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">unpaid leave</a> for exempted workers.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a>On January 6, 2022, Pittman ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to review, redact, and release data submitted by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine" title="COVID-19 vaccine" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">COVID-19 vaccine</a> manufacturer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfizer" title="Pfizer" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Pfizer</a> for authorized use of the vaccine at an unprecedented rate. The data came from a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Information_Act" title="Freedom of Information Act" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Freedom of Information Act</a> request submitted to FDA for documents beyond what was already publicly available on FDA's website as part of the approved vaccine's Action Package. Although the pace of the scheduling order required FDA to hire an additional team of contractors and expend roughly $5 million solely to comply with this FOIA request, Pittman ordered FDA to release documents at a faster pace, including at least 55,000 pages some months and at least 80,000 pages other months.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a>On November 10, 2022, Pittman ruled that the Biden administration did not have the authority to forgive student loan debt through executive action reasoning that the 2003 law known as the HEROES relied upon by the Biden administration was an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power and therefore does not provide the executive branch clear congressional authorization to create the student loan forgiveness program.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Memberships[</h2>He is a member of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Bar_of_Texas" title="State Bar of Texas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">State Bar of Texas</a>, Tarrant County Bar Association, Texas Bar Foundation, and the American Judges Association. He is vice president and a founding member of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Society" title="Federalist Society" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Tarrant County Federalist Society</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_T.Pittman#cite_note-Abbott-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Reference</h2></div><div>
</div><div>=</div><div>comm dr</div><div>
</div><div>Justice Department filed an appeal Thursday after a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas blocked the Biden administration's student debt cancellation program nationwide, declaring it "unlawful" on grounds that legal experts <a href="https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1590873220525481984" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;">criticized</a> as laughable.The 26-page <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.368635/gov.uscourts.txnd.368635.37.0.pdf" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">ruling</a> by Mark Pittman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas finds that the two plaintiffs who brought the case with the backing of the Job Creators Network Foundation—an affiliate of a right-wing, <a href="https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/job-creators-network/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">billionaire-funded</a> business trade group—have standing to sue over the debt cancellation program because the Biden administration didn't allow a public comment period before moving ahead with the plan.A public comment period is not required under the legal authority the Biden administration used to justify the cancellation of $10,000 to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for most borrowers, but Pittman noted that the plaintiffs dispute that legal authority."Because the court must 'assume, for purposes of the standing analysis, that [plaintiffs are] correct on the merits of [their] claim that the [program] was promulgated in violation of the [Administrative Procedure Act],' plaintiffs have successfully alleged the deprivation of a procedural right," wrote Pittman, a founding member of the Tarrant County Federalist Society.Neither Myra Brown nor Alexander Taylor, the two plaintiffs in the case, are eligible for full student debt relief under the Biden administration's plan—Brown has commercial loans and Taylor did not receive a Pell Grant. The Intercept <a href="https://theintercept.com/2022/11/09/student-debt-relief-lawsuit-ppp-myra-brown/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;">reported</a> earlier this week that Brown "has herself been a beneficiary of debt cancellation, in the form of a Paycheck Protection Program business loan worth over twice the maximum amount covered under Biden's program."Pittman's reasoning conflicts with <a href="https://protectborrowers.org/in-victory-for-student-loan-borrowers-federal-judge-rejects-major-legal-challenge-to-student-debt-relief/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;">rulings in previous cases</a> in which judges—including one <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/10/20/student-loan-forgiveness-lawsuit-rejected/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;">appointed by George W. Bush</a>—dismissed lawsuits against the debt cancellation plan over plaintiffs' failure to demonstrate standing, which requires them to prove direct injury or harm.[twt]"Today, a federal judge conspired with right-wing politicians and corrupt corporations to block life-changing student debt relief for tens of millions of families," said Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC). "In courts across the country, dark money-backed legal challenges are growing like weeds. The Biden administration must use this decision as an opportunity to make it clear that the student loan system will remain shut off as long as these partisan legal challenges persist. Student loan borrowers should never be sacrificed as pawns in Republicans' political games."Shortly after Pittman handed down his ruling, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement that "we strongly disagree with the District Court's ruling on our student debt relief program and the Department of Justice has filed an appeal.""The president and this administration are determined to help working and middle-class Americans get back on their feet, while our opponents—backed by extreme Republican special interests—sued to block millions of Americans from getting much-needed relief," said Jean-Pierre.   "For the 26 million borrowers who have already given the Department of Education the necessary information to be considered for debt relief—16 million of whom have already been approved for relief—the department will hold onto their information so it can quickly process their relief once we prevail in court," she added.<div class="tweet__field-media-twitter" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px auto; width: 550px; max-width: 550px; display: flex;">[twt doc]pittman's decision came weeks after the conservative-dominated Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/10/21/appeals-court-temporarily-blocks-student-debt-cancellation-program" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;">issued a one-page order</a> pausing the debt cancellation program in response to a challenge brought by Republican attorneys general, leaving millions of borrowers in limbo.Persis Yu, deputy executive director and managing counsel at SBPC, said late Thursday that "the devastating result" of Pittman's ruling "is that tens of millions of student loan borrowers across the country now have their vital debt relief blocked as a result of this farcical and fabricated legal claim.""Today's decision is a tragic reminder of the tightening grip that special interests have on our legal system," Yu added. "It is disappointing to see this judge pervert the law in order to achieve a politically motivated outcome. The Biden administration cannot now resume payments on January 1st. It must use all of its tools to fight to ensure that borrowers receive the debt relief they need."Writing for The Guardian on Friday, Debt Collective co-founder Astra Taylor <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/11/young-voters-blocked-the-red-wave-biden-must-deliver-on-student-debt-cancellation" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;">noted</a> that the Biden administration's debt relief plan likely motivated many young voters to turn out in the midterms, helping Democrats stave off the predicted "red wave.""Looking ahead, there's no doubt student debt relief will play an outsized role in the December 6 Georgia runoff—a contest that may determine the balance of power in the Senate," Taylor wrote, urging President Joe Biden to "cancel student debt tomorrow and let [Republican candidate Herschel] Walker deal with the fallout.""Biden has the power to make this happen," Taylor argued. "As things stand, his debt relief plan is stalled by bad-faith litigation. While the president has rightly blasted the Republicans behind these lawsuits, the real story is more complicated. Biden could have directed the education secretary to cancel people's debts using the 'compromise and settlement' authority granted in the Higher Education Act of 1965, but instead his administration invoked a different and more limited legal authority.""If Biden allows Republicans and billionaires to sabotage student debt cancellation without a fight, he risks breaking the fragile trust that has only just been built with younger voters," Taylor warned. "Student debt cancellation can be one of Biden's signature victories, and a catalyst for a reinvigorated Democratic Party, or a self-inflicted failure—an empty promise that risks demoralizing and demobilizing the demographic on which the future of the Democratic Party, and arguably democracy itself, depends."</div><div>=</div></div></div></div>