Judge Vacates Biden 401(k) Rule That Trump DOL Plans to Rewrite

A major Biden administration 401(k) rule is officially dead after the Trump administration stopped defending it in court.

Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas approved a motion to vacate on Thursday after it was unopposed by both the Department of Labor and the Federation of Americans for Consumer Choice, which sued over the regulation.

The Trump administration had previously stopped defending the regulation in the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, stating its plan to re-write the Biden-era rule.

The district court’s move serves as a final blow to the Biden administration’s fiduciary rule finalized in 2024, which was hit with lawsuits claiming it exceeded the administration’s regulatory authority. The rule expanded fiduciary duties to cover workers’ rollovers from 401(k) accounts into annuities and other investment vehicles.

The Biden rule faced similar legal blowback to an earlier fiduciary rule issued by the Obama administration. The Fifth Circuit in 2018 vacated the Obama-era version of the rule in its entirety, determining it exceeded statutory limits.

The case is Fed’n of Americans for Consumer Choice Inc. v. Dep’t of Labor, E.D. Tex., No. 6:24-cv-00163, 3/11/26