A federal judge has sided with the Department of Justice and transferred a lawsuit challenging a new Education Department student loan rule away from a conservative court district in Texas, Politico is reporting.
District Judge Mark Pittman, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump, made the ruling on Monday. Pittman is based in Fort Worth in the Northern District of Texas. He ruled the legal challenge was improperly filed there while granting the Justice Department's request to transfer the case to Austin, which is in the Western District of Texas.
Politico noted that the Justice Department had been previously unsuccessful in moving other legal challenges of administration policies away from the Northern District of Texas.
Conservative opponents of President Joe Biden policies have been accused by critics of filing their lawsuits in particular divisions in the district in the hope of guaranteeing they're heard by a sympathetic judge, Politico said.
The DOJ has accused Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of "judge shopping" in recent cases he's filed in the district challenging multiple administration policies.
The DOJ has been running into resistance as it tries to push back on Texas' pattern of filing cases in a certain manner that clears the way for it to choose judges in the cases, CNN reported.
The transfer in this particular case however, involves a for-profit college trade association that is looking to block a Biden administration policy. The new policy makes it easier for those who borrow student loans to have their debts wiped out when they are misled by their college, Politico reported.
Career Colleges & Schools of Texas filed the case in February.
The Austin-based group was unsuccessful in arguing that it should be able to pursue the case in the Fort Worth division of the Northern District of Texas on behalf of member schools in that area.
Pittman ruled that connection to the district was too far removed.
The Justice Department declined a request by Politico for comment. An attorney representing Career Colleges & Schools of Texas said that the organization would not comment on pending litigation.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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