Student-loan borrowers sued Betsy DeVos' office over debt forgiveness. A judge ruled she cannot be forced to testify.

• Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was named in a lawsuit filed by student-loan borrowers.
• The borrowers said thousands of loan-forgiveness claims were not processed under her watch.

Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will not have to testify in a class-action lawsuit filed against the department on behalf of student-loan borrowers, a judge ruled on Friday

In 2019, seven student-loan borrowers filed a lawsuit on behalf of 160,000 others alleging that the Department of Education failed to process their loan-forgiveness claims while DeVos was in charge. Under DeVos, the department weakened a debt-cancellation methodology, known as the borrower defense to repayment, which was intended to forgive student debt for borrowers who were defrauded by for-profit schools. While 99.2% of claims filed under President Barack Obama's Department of Education were approved, 99.4% of claims filed under DeVos were denied.

The plaintiffs said that DeVos' office was illegally delaying processing of loan-forgiveness claims and provided no timetable for when their claims would be considered.

Ninth Circuit Court judge Milan Smith wrote in an opinion on Friday that despite the backlog of claims under DeVos' watch, she cannot be forced to testify in the case since she is no longer in office.

"The panel held that there was no indication that DeVos held information that was essential to plaintiffs' case or that it was otherwise unobtainable," Milan wrote in his 28-page opinion.

Since the lawsuit was filed, courts have split on whether DeVos should have to testify in the case. Since DeVos is no longer a defendant in the lawsuit after resigning from her post following the January 6 insurrection, President Joe Biden's Justice Department joined DeVos in fighting her subpoena in February, with DeVos' attorney saying in a court filing that the "demand for a former Cabinet official's deposition is extraordinary, unnecessary, and unsupported."

"It is a transparent attempt at harassment — part of a PR campaign that has been central to Plaintiffs' litigation strategy from the outset," the attorney added.

But in May, a district court judge ruled otherwise. Judge William Alsup rejected the effort to prevent DeVos from testifying in the case, saying in his opinion that "exceptional circumstances" justify a former Cabinet secretary going to court, and DeVos' department provided "sparse" documentation to explain the backlog of student-loan-forgiveness claims.

"If judicial process runs to presidents, it runs to Cabinet secretaries — especially former ones," Alsup wrote.

While it looks like DeVos will not be testifying, Biden's Education Department has taken some steps to remedy the situation. In March, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona reversed DeVos' methodology for calculating loan relief, and he has canceled over $2.6 billion in student debt for borrowers defrauded by for-profit schools like the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institutes.