特朗普政府周三采取行动，终止了其为彻底改革一项广受欢迎的学生贷款减免计划而进行的法律斗争。
The Trump administration moved Wednesday to end its legal fight to overhaul a popular student loan forgiveness program.
联邦法官于6月裁定支持倡导者，认为公共服务贷款减免计划（PSLF）有沦为政治报复工具的风险，随后司法部提起了上诉。但周三，司法部在单句联合协议中撤回了两项上诉，协议规定双方各自承担自己的费用。联邦官员未提供解释，但倡导者对这一裁决表示赞扬。
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武器化，用以打击其不同意的组织，这从一开始就是反民主且非法的，”Student Defense组织的律师丹·齐贝尔在一份书面声明中说。“这是数百万致力于公共服务事业的美国人的重大胜利。” PSLF计划旨在通过在合格员工缴纳贷款十年后免除其贷款，使政府、公立学校、消防和警察部门、公立医院及非营利组织的工作更具吸引力。
“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，唐纳德·特朗普总统的政府制定了一项新规，授权教育部长琳达·麦克马洪将雇主踢出该计划，前提是她认定其工作具有“实质性非法目的”。这条措辞模糊的规则针对的是支持无证移民或跨性别青少年的雇主，可能影响在学校、公立医院和法律援助机构工作的借款人。
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.
这项改革相当于对一项已为超过100万美国人免除贷款的计划进行大规模重塑。
The overhaul amounted to a major reworking of a program that has canceled loans for more than 1 million Americans.
但就在该规则定于7月生效前夕，马萨诸塞州联邦地区法官Myong Joun作出裁决，撤销了美国教育部的修改，理由是这些修改超越了该机构的权力，并威胁到第一修正案对言论自由的保护。该裁决是针对20多个州以及一个由非营利组织和城市组成的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，华盛顿联邦地区法官Amir Ali在非营利组织提起的一起案件中作出了类似的裁决。
On the same day, District Judge Amir Ali in Washington issued a similar ruling in a case brought by nonprofit organizations.