Who is the Fort Worth judge who blocked Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness program?

A Fort Worth judge is the latest to block the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan, three weeks after the program was temporarily blocked by a federal appeals court.

The student loan relief plan, announced by President Joe Biden Aug. 24, would cancel up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients and $10,000 for non-Pell Grant recipients.

District Court Judge Mark Pittman said in a statement that the program usurped Congress’ power to make laws.

“The Court is not blind to the current political division in our country,” Pittman said in a statement. “But it is fundamental to the survival of our Republic that the separation of powers as outlined in our Constitution be preserved.”

Pittman has served as a judge for the Northern District Court of Texas since 2019 and was appointed by former President Donald Trump.

A graduate of Texas A&M University and the University of Texas School of Law, he served on the 352nd District Court in Fort Worth from 2015-2017.

Pittman made headline in August when he struck down a Texas ban on 18 to 20-year-olds carrying handguns in public.

In a statement, Pittman said, the Second Amendment does not state an age restriction and noted that minors were part of state militias that existed in the formative years of American history.

Pittman is a former vice-president and founding member of Fort Worth’s Federalist Society chapter and a master of the Eldon B. Mahon Inn of Court. He has served on the Board of Ballet Concerto of Fort Worth and the Tarrant County Volunteer Attorney Services Committee and coached youth sports at the YMCA.