A federal appeals court has cleared the way for 450,000 borrowers to receive debt relief after rejecting the Trump administration’s bid to delay discharges under a landmark settlement for students defrauded by for-profit colleges.
On July 17, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously rejected the Education Department’s request to postpone relief for borrowers covered by the Sweet v. McMahon settlement, a $23 billion class-action agreement that represents the largest settlement against the U.S. government in history.
The case has spanned three presidential administrations since it was filed in 2019, when borrowers sued claiming the Education Department had illegally stopped processing Borrower Defense…