Obama Administration Hits Back at Student Debtors Seeking Relief

On a day when Democratic presidential candidates sparred in a national debate over who would do more to help indebted students, the U.S. government launched a new attack on student debtors seeking loan relief (Murphy v. U.S. Department of Education, 1st Cir., 14-01691, brief filed 10/13/15).

On Oct. 13, the Department of Education intervened in the case of Robert Murphy, an unemployed 65-year-old who has waged a three-year legal battle to erase his student loans in bankruptcy.

Unlike almost every single form of consumer debt, student loans can be erased only in very rare circumstances. Murphy’s case, ...