Appeals Court Rejects Department of Education's Bid To Delay Sweet Settlement Relief
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied ED's latest challenge to key deadlines in the landmark settlement, which has secured $23 billion in relief for more than 500,000 borrowers.
SAN FRANCISCO (July 17, 2026) – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today unanimously rejected the Department of Education's appeal seeking to delay relief for post-class borrowers under the landmark Sweet v. McMahon borrower defense settlement.
The decision is the latest in a series of court rulings rejecting the Department's efforts to avoid its obligations under the Sweet settlement. In total, the settlement has secured at least $23 billion in federal student loan relief for more than 500,000 borrowers, making it one of the largest government settlements in U.S. history.
"Once again, the courts have rejected the Department's attempts to evade its obligations to borrowers who have waited far too long for the relief they are owed," said Eileen Connor, President and Executive Director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending. "Today's decision brings us another step closer to fulfilling the settlement's promise to every borrower, and we won’t stop fighting until that promise is realized."
The Department sought to overturn district court rulings denying its requests to extend a key settlement deadline for deciding post-class borrower defense applications. The ruling means the Department must now deliver long-awaited relief to over 170,000 post-class borrowers who did not receive timely decisions on their borrower defense applications.
Earlier this year, the district court rejected the Department's requests to extend the January 28, 2026 deadline for deciding post-class borrower defense applications involving Exhibit C schools, and allowed only a limited extension for non-Exhibit C decision to April 15, 2026. In March 2026, the Ninth Circuit denied the Department’s motion to stay the district court’s decision pending appeal.
In today’s decision, the Ninth Circuit concluded that the Department failed to demonstrate the "changed circumstances" required to modify the settlement. The court found that the Department knew the size of the post-class when it agreed to the settlement, understood the implications of that agreement, and failed to justify a change to the obligations it had undertaken.
About the Project on Predatory Student Lending
The Project on Predatory Student Lending (PPSL) is the leading legal organization representing student borrowers against predatory for-profit colleges and the policies that enable institutions to exploit and cheat students. PPSL uses bold, strategic litigation and advocacy to demand accountability in the higher education space and influence policy solutions to create a more just and affordable education system. PPSL represents more than two million student borrowers and its work has resulted in the cancellation of more than $30 billion of fraudulent student loan debt.
