A federal appeals court has cleared the way for approximately 450,000 student loan borrowers to receive debt relief after years of legal battles over a federal protection designed to help those defrauded by their colleges. The ruling, issued on July 17 in the case Sweet v. McMahon, resolves a class-action lawsuit that has spanned three presidential administrations and will deliver more than $23 billion in total relief, according to the Project on Predatory Student Lending.
The case centers on the borrower defense rule, a federal provision that allows borrowers to petition the U.S. Education Department to erase their debts if a school has lied to them about job prospects, credit transferability, salary expectations after…