A powerful coalition of U.S. cities, counties, national non-profit organizations, and major labor unions filed a federal lawsuit on November 3, 2025, challenging a newly finalized Department of Education (DOE) rule that threatens to disqualify thousands of public service employers from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts against Education Secretary Linda McMahon and the DOE, argues that the regulation is an unlawful and politically motivated attempt to use the PSLF program as a weapon against entities whose missions do not align with the Trump-Vance Administration’s political agenda.

The plaintiffs assert that the rule, which allows the Secretary to strip an employer’s PSLF eligibility if they

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