Communications with the Student Loan Servicing Alliance re Preemption

Shortly after the U.S. Department of Education made public its Notice of Interpretation concluding that state law governing student loan services was preempted by federal law, the Student Loan Servicing Alliance (SLSA) filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia seeking a declaratory judgment that certain D.C. laws and rules are preempted. (http://www.slsa.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Complaint_SLSA_v_Taylor_et_al.pdf).

On March 27, 2018, shortly after the lawsuit was filed, NSLDN submitted a FOIA request to the Department seeking communications between ED and SLSA relating to the preemption of state law.

A copy of the FOIA request is available here.

The Department has not yet provided documents in response to this request.

On June 21, 2018, NSLDN, represented by American Oversight, brought a lawsuit to enforce its rights under FOIA with respect to this Request.