U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, a Trump appointee, ruled that the program, which would have provided borrowers with up to $20,000 in student loans, was “an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s legislative power.” The Biden administration has argued that it has the authority to forgive student loans under the Higher Education Student Opportunity Act of 2003. But Pittman rejected that argument Thursday, finding there is no “clear congressional authorization” to the program. The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed in October by the Job Creators Network Foundation, a conservative advocacy group, on behalf of one borrower who did not qualify for the relief program and another who was not eligible for the full $20,000. The group argued that the Department of Education did not allow public notice and comment on the program and that the agency generally did not have the authority to forgive student loans under the HEROES Act. As an agency, the Department of Education technically gets its rulemaking authority from Congress. Since the issue of student loan forgiveness is of enormous “economic and political importance,” Pittman found that the agency must show that it has clear congressional authorization for the program, which he ruled it did not. “Whether the Program constitutes good public policy is not for this Court to determine,” Pittman said in the ruling. “Nevertheless, no one can reasonably deny that this 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.” Thursday’s decision represents the biggest victory yet for conservative opponents of the Biden administration’s debt relief program. Sotomayor won’t block New York public worker vaccine mandate Marijuana legalization makes gains, but faces strong pushback from red state A federal appeals court temporarily put the program on hold in late October after six GOP-led states challenged it. However, the appeals court’s ruling only blocked the program, while the states’ appeal stayed and did not overturn the program. Biden’s debt relief program would forgive up to $10,000 in student loans for borrowers making less than $125,000 and up to $20,000 for those who received Pell grants. Updated at 8:37 p.m