If you weren’t already super psyched for the Big Beautiful Bill borrowing caps making law school unaffordable for many, get ready to learn that most lawyerly public service is no longer getting loan forgiveness. Because public service itself is going to “illegal.”
The Trump administration’s ongoing war on the legal profession continues with the Department of Education releasing its finalized Public Service Loan Forgiveness rule — a process kicked off in March when Trump issued his Restoring Public Service Loan Forgiveness Executive Order — and while its impact will be felt across education, the new rule is especially brutal for law school graduates, with the DOE cutting off forgiveness to those causes it deems to be supporting “illegal activity.” And, if you hadn’t already guessed what it means to support “illegal” activity in this regime, they mean jobs like “representing immigrants” and “advocating for transgender rights.”
“Taxpayer funds should never directly or indirectly subsidize illegal activity,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said, a reasonable premise if directed at graduates aspiring to become a mob consigliere. As it happens, that’s not the sort of “illegal activity” Kent’s talking about. “The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program was meant to support Americans who dedicate their careers to public service – not to subsidize organizations that violate the law, whether by harboring illegal immigrants or performing prohibited medical procedures that attempt to transition children away from their biological sex.”