A federal judge in Boston has put a stop to a Trump administration rule that would have blocked some public service employees from qualifying for federal student loan forgiveness.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun sided with a coalition of Democratic-led states, cities, and nonprofit organizations that challenged the U.S. Department of Education’s new regulation. Those groups argued the rule was crafted to target organizations that advocate for immigration rights, transgender healthcare, and other causes the Trump administration opposes, effectively pushing them out of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.
That program allows borrowers who work for government agencies or nonprofit employers to have their federal student loans wiped out after 10 years of qualifying employment. Since Congress created the program in 2007, more than one million borrowers have had their debt erased through it.
In a March 2025 executive order, President Trump stated that the program had “misdirected tax dollars into activist organizations that not only fail to serve the public interest, but actually harm our national security and American values.” He directed the Education Department to rewrite the rules governing who qualifies, specifically to exclude employers with what he called a “substantial illegal purpose.”
The Education Department followed through, publishing a final rule in October that defined “substantial illegal purpose” to include activities such as aiding illegal immigration, supporting terrorism, engaging in illegal discrimination, and participating in what it described as the “chemical and surgical castration or mutilation of children.”
Plaintiffs filed their lawsuit in November, seeking to prevent the rule from taking effect on July 1. They argued the regulation was clearly designed to penalize organizations the administration disagrees with, including groups that work on behalf of immigrants, transgender individuals, diversity programs, and political protest movements.
Their legal challenge also contended that the law establishing the forgiveness program never gave the Education Department the authority to carve out exceptions to eligibility, and that the agency had no reasonable justification for the policy.
Monday’s court decision represents the second time in less than a week that a judge has blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to overhaul the federal student loan system. Earlier last week, a separate judge in Washington, D.C., prevented the Education Department from enforcing a different rule that would have lowered federal student loan limits for graduate students pursuing degrees in nursing and other healthcare fields.
