On Thursday November 10th, 2022 the United States District Court For The Northern District Of Texas declared the blanket student loan forgiveness program unlawful and vacated the program as a result of the judgement. United States District Judge Mark T. Pittman ruled in favor of plaintiffs Myra Brown Et Al who had filed the case on October 10th, 2022. The plaintiffs contended that the plan to forgive $10,000, or $20,000 in student loan debt for every Direct student loan borrower violated the Administrative Procedures Act because it “was formulated and executed by un-elected administrators who are not directly accountable to the populace”. The U.S. Department of Education immediately took down the forgiveness application from the studentaid.gov website and student loan borrowers are no longer able to apply for the blanket student loan forgiveness of $10,000, or $20,000 for those who received Pell grants.
What does this mean for Hope Credit borrowers?
Although this eventual outcome was to be expected given the unilateral manner in which the blanket forgiveness program was concocted and implemented, the outcome has no bearing on the original student loan forgiveness programs that are based on federal legislation and/or negotiated rule-making. All of the original income based forgiveness programs remain intact, and all Hope Credit clients will continue to enjoy lower monthly student loan payments and credit toward the 10, 20, and 25 year forgiveness programs which have been federal law for decades.
