\n<\/p>\n
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from implementing a new rule \u2060stripping public service workers of eligibility for federal student loan forgiveness if it deems their employers to have a \u201csubstantial illegal purpose\u201d.<\/p>\n
US district judge \u2060Myong Joun in \u2060Boston sided \u200bwith Democratic-led states, cities and non-profits that argued the US Department of Education\u2019s rule would allow it to target groups supporting immigration rights, transgender \u2060healthcare and other causes the Trump administration disfavors, by disqualifying them from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.<\/p>\n
That program allows borrowers to have their federal \u2060student loans forgiven after 10 years working for government or non-profit employers. More than a million \u200bborrowers have received debt relief since Congress \u200cestablished it in 2007.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump \u200cin a March 2025 executive order claimed the program has \u201cmisdirected tax dollars into activist organizations that not \u200conly fail to serve the public interest, but actually harm our national security and American values\u201d.<\/p>\n
The US president\u2019s order directed the education department to revise regulations governing the program to redefine what constitutes \u201cpublic service\u201d work to exclude organizations that engage in activities that have a \u201csubstantial illegal purpose\u201d.<\/p>\n
The education department did so with a final rule that it published in October \u200cthat defined \u201csubstantial illegal purpose\u201d as covering activities that include aiding what it defines as illegal immigration, supporting terrorism, engaging in illegal discrimination or participating in the \u201cchemical and surgical castration or mutilation \u200bof children\u201d, which the sort of language the administration often uses when referring to gender affirming care for transgender minors.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs sued in November to have the rule blocked from taking effect on 1 July, saying it was clearly designed to target causes the administration disfavors and groups that support immigrants\u2019 rights, transgender healthcare, diversity initiatives and political protest.<\/p>\n
Their lawsuit argued that the law \u2060that created the forgiveness program did not grant the education department the discretion \u200bto create exceptions to \u200beligibility for the program and that the \u200bagency lacked a rational basis for adopting the policy.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s ruling marked the \u200bsecond legal defeat \u200cfor the Trump administration\u2019s efforts \u200bto remake the \u200bfederal student loan system in the last week. On Wednesday, another judge in Washington DC barred the education department from implementing a new rule that would impose lower federal student loan limits for people pursuing graduate degrees in nursing and other healthcare-related fields.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from implementing a new rule \u2060stripping public service workers of eligibility for federal student loan forgiveness if it deems their employers to have a \u201csubstantial illegal purpose\u201d. US district judge \u2060Myong Joun in \u2060Boston sided \u200bwith Democratic-led states, cities and non-profits that argued the US Department<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[794,1336,5512,675,2015,177,1156,745,2480,393,81,1438],"class_list":{"0":"post-50797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-administration","9":"tag-blocks","10":"tag-forgiveness","11":"tag-judge","12":"tag-loan","13":"tag-public","14":"tag-rule","15":"tag-service","16":"tag-strip","17":"tag-student","18":"tag-trump","19":"tag-workers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}