Overview
- The Justice Department moved to drop two appeals on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, ending part of the Trump administration’s court fight to implement a rule that would have limited who counts as public service for loan forgiveness.
- Those appeals had sought to overturn lower-court orders that in June vacated the Education Department’s rule after judges found the agency overstepped its authority and threatened First Amendment protections.
- The proposed rule would have let the Education Secretary exclude employers under a new definition of “public service” for actions such as assisting undocumented immigrants or providing gender-affirming care, a change critics said targeted certain nonprofits and cities.
- The single-sentence joint filings that dismissed the two appeals offered no public explanation and said each side would bear its own fees, while a separate appeal in a different PSLF case remains active.
- PSLF forgives federal student loans for qualifying government and nonprofit workers after about a decade of payments, has canceled loans for over one million people, and advocates say the dropped appeals mean immediate eligibility is protected even as administrative errors and ongoing litigation continue to leave some borrowers in limbo.