5 higher education lawsuits to watch in 2025

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5 higher education lawsuits to watch in 2025

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 The higher education landscape could shift in major ways this year, including through changes brought by court decisions. Several of the Biden administration’s policies are under legal fire, though it’s so far unclear how the Trump administration will handle those cases. 

Meanwhile, major academic publishers are facing a class-action lawsuit accusing them of violating antitrust law. And the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — which prevents the deportation of immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children — could land on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. 

 Below, we’re rounding up five major lawsuits that we’re keeping an eye on in 2025  

DACA’s future remains uncertain

DACA has faced numerous legal challenges since its inception via executive action in 2012, including a recent appellate court order that declared the program illegal but kept it running for current recipients

The latest order keeps DACA in legal limbo, where it has languished since the Trump administration attempted to end the program in 2017. However, the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the Trump administration didn’t provide sufficient reasoning to end the program. The justices did not weigh the legality of the program, giving an opening for further legal challenges. 

In 2022, the Biden administration released a 453-page rule on the DACA program in an attempt to firm up its legal footing. Those efforts failed the following year, however, when a Texas court found the regulations unlawful. However, the ruling did not call for the program to immediately end

This month’s ruling similarly found DACA to be illegal, though it likewise didn’t end the program, citing the significance it has for current recipients. 

That means DACA can continue operating as it has for years — recipients can renew their authorizations but U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will not review any first-time applications. 

The fate of the program could ultimately be up to the Supreme Court. 

However, it also depends on how the second Trump administration decides to proceed. In a turnabout from his first term, President Donald Trump recently said he’d like to find a way to protect undocumented immigrants covered by DACA

Trump administration signals new approach to borrower defense

The Biden administration’s borrower defense to repayment regulations were headed to the Supreme Court after an appellate panel temporarily blocked them in April. However, earlier this month, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to hold off from considering the case while it reviews the U.S. Department of Education’s regulations.

“After the change in Administration, the Acting Secretary of Education has determined that the Department should reassess the basis for and soundness of the Department’s borrower-defense regulations,” Sarah Harris, the acting U.S. solicitor general, said in court documents. 

The borrower defense program allows students to have their loans forgiven if their colleges misled or defrauded them. The Biden administration’s regulations aimed to make it easier for students to have their debts cleared, including by allowing the Education Department to consider claims as a group and expanding the types of institutional misconduct that could warrant loan forgiveness. 

The rule, released in 2022, came after the first Trump administration released its own borrower defense regulations that made it harder for students to get debt relief, including by requiring them to prove they couldn’t find employment as a result of being misled by their colleges. 

An alleged academic publishing cartel 

In September, a neuroscience professor at the University of California, Los Angeles launched a full-frontal assault on the academic publishing system through an antitrust lawsuit against six of the sector’s largest scientific publishers. 

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