特朗普总统周三结束了其为改造一项受欢迎的学生贷款减免计划而进行的法律斗争。
HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH The Trump administration moved Wednesday to end its legal fight to overhaul a popular student loan forgiveness program.
司法部在六月联邦法官支持倡导者的裁决后提出上诉，倡导者称公共服务贷款减免计划有可能成为政治报复的工具。但周三，司法部在单句联合协议中撤销了两项上诉，协议规定各方自行承担费用。联邦官员未作解释，但倡导者欢迎该裁决。
The Department of Justice appealed after federal judges ruled in June in favor of advocates who said the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program risked becoming a tool for political retribution. But it dropped two appeals Wednesday in single-sentence joint agreements, which stipulated that each side would pay its own fees. Federal officials provided no explanation, but advocates praised the ruling.
“特朗普政府试图将公共服务贷款减免计划作为武器，针对其不同意的组织，从一开始就是反民主且违法的，”学生辩护组织律师丹·齐贝尔在书面声明中表示。“这是数百万致力于公共服务的美国人的重大胜利。”该计划旨在通过为合格员工在十年还款后减免贷款，使政府、公立学校、消防和警察部门、公立医院及非营利机构的工作更具吸引力。
“The Trump administration’s attempt to weaponize public service loan forgiveness against organizations it disagrees with was anti-democratic and unlawful from the start,” Dan Zibel, an attorney for the group Student Defense, said in a written statement. “This is a significant victory for millions of Americans who have dedicated their careers to public service.”The PSLF program was designed to make jobs in government, public schools, fire and police departments, public hospitals and nonprofits more attractive by forgiving loans for qualified employees after a decade’s worth of payments.
但去年秋天，特朗普总统的政府制定了一项新规则，授权教育部长琳达·麦克马洪在认定雇主的工作具有“重大非法目的”时将其踢出该计划。该措辞模糊的规则针对支持无证移民或跨性别青年的雇主，可能影响在学校、公立医院和法律援助团体工作的借款人。
But last fall, President Donald Trump’s administration wrote a new rule to empower Education Secretary Linda McMahon to kick employers out of the program if she decides their work has a “substantial illegal purpose.”The vaguely phrased rule was targeted at employers who support undocumented immigrants or transgender youth, potentially affecting borrowers who worked at schools, public hospitals and legal aid groups.
该改造对一项已为超过100万美国人减免贷款的计划进行了重大重构。
The overhaul amounted to a major reworking of a program that has canceled loans for more than 1 million Americans.
但就在该规定原定于7月生效前夕，马萨诸塞州美国地区法院法官明容·朱恩（Myong Joun）宣布撤销美国教育部的相关修改，称其超出了该机构的权力，并可能违反第一修正案对言论自由的保护。该裁决是对20多个州以及一批非营利组织和城市联盟提起的两起诉讼作出的。
But just before it was set to take effect in July, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Massachusetts vacated the U.S. Education Department’s changes, saying they overstepped the agency’s power and threatened to violate First Amendment protections for free speech. The ruling came in response to a pair of lawsuits filed by more than 20 states along with a coalition of nonprofit groups and cities.
同一天，华盛顿特区地区法院法官阿米尔·阿里（Amir Ali）在非营利组织提起的一起案件中作出了类似裁决。
On the same day, District Judge Amir Ali in Washington issued a similar ruling in a case brought by nonprofit organizations.