Category Archives: Student Loans

Student essay asks if anyone would have standing to sue in federal court to challenge student loan cancellation

by Jeff Sovern Jack Hoover, a 3L at Virginia, has written Standing and Student Loan Cancellation, 108 Va. L. Rev. Online (Forthcoming 2022). Here's the abstract: As the public policy debate over broad student loan cancellation continues, many have questioned whether the Executive branch has the legal authority to waive the federal government’s claim to […]

NY Times: Navient settlement with the states does not help borrowers who are not in default

Here. Excerpt: After years of struggling to make payments that hardly put a dent in the loans she took out to attend a now defunct arts school, Victoria Linssen saw a glimmer of hope. A deal last month between 39 states and Navient, a student lending giant accused of unfairly ensnaring borrowers like her, would […]

Consumer Law Scholars Make Wide-Ranging Proposals to CFPB

The effort was led by Berkeley's Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice and resulted in production of a series of short memoranda available here. Topics covered include discrimination, arbitration, income share agreements, BNPL, substitution effects of regulation, disclosures, overdraft protections, and more.

SBPC’s Mark Huelsman report: the student loan IDR system creates a debt trap

Mark Huelsman of the Student Borrower Protection Center has written Driving Runaway Debt: How IDR’s Current Design Buries Borrowers Under Billions of Dollars in Unaffordable Interest. Here's the abstract: This report highlights how the design of the main protection meant to deliver affordability to federal student loan borrowers, Income-Driven Repayment (IDR), ignores the widespread effects that […]

Are we going to see UDAAP statutes used against discrimination? The Student Borower Protection Center hopes so

The SBPC issued a report, DISCRIMINATION IS "UNFAIR": Interpreting UDA(A)P to Prohibit Discrimination. Here's the Executive Summary: This Article explores a theory that discrimination is a type of “unfair” practice covered by federal and state laws prohibiting unfair, deceptive (and sometimes abusive) acts and practices (“UDA(A)Ps”). An “unfair” practice is defined by statute as something […]

Jackson & Mark paper asks whether the executive branch can forgive student loan debt without congressional action

Howell E. Jackson and Colin Mark, both of Harvard, have written May the Executive Branch Forgive Student Loan Debt Without Further Congressional Action? Here's the abstract: On April 1, 2021, the Biden Administration announced that Secretary of Education Michael Cardona will consider whether the President has legal authority to forgive up to $50,000 per debtor in […]