UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

┐ MACKINAC CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY; CATO │ INSTITUTE, │ Plaintiffs-Appellants, │ > No. 23-1736 │ v. │ │ MIGUEL CARDONA, Secretary, U.S. Department of │ Education, in his official capacity; RICHARD │ CORDRAY, Chief Operating Officer of Federal Student │ Aid, U.S. Department of Education, in his official │ capacity; U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, │ Defendants-Appellees. │ ┘

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at Bay City. No. 1:23-cv-11906—Thomas L. Ludington, District Judge.

Argued: March 21, 2024

Decided and Filed: May 17, 2024

Before: SILER, COLE, and MATHIS, Circuit Judges. _________________

COUNSEL ARGUED: Sheng Li, NEW CIVIL LIBERTIES ALLIANCE, Washington, D.C., for Appellants. Thomas Pulham, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Sheng Li, NEW CIVIL LIBERTIES ALLIANCE, Washington, D.C., for Appellants. Thomas Pulham, Michael S. Raab, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appellees. Seth E. Mermin, David S. Nahmias, U.C. BERKELEY CENTER FOR CONSUMER LAW & ECONOMIC JUSTICE, Berkeley, California, PERSIS S. Yu, R. T. Winston Berkman-Breen, STUDENT BORROWER PROTECTION CENTER, Washington, D.C., for Amici Curiae. No. 23-1736 Mackinac Ctr. for Pub. Pol’y, et al. v. Cardona, et al. Page 2

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OPINION _________________

MATHIS, Circuit Judge. Many people consider a college education the ticket to the American dream. Some take out student loans to get the ticket. Paying back those loans can turn into a nightmare. Congress and the U.S. Department of Education stepped in to help by creating income-driven student-loan repayment plans and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Various problems arose with these plans, including student-loan servicers steering borrowers into postponing or reducing their student-loan payments for extended periods of time. In response, the Department of Education announced, in April 2022 and July 2023, a one-time account adjustment that would count months or years that borrowers spent in excessive forbearance status toward debt forgiveness. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Cato Institute did not take kindly to the Department of Education’s action, so they sued to stop it. The question presented is whether Plaintiffs’ complaint sufficiently alleged that they suffered an injury in fact resulting from the adjustment based on competitor standing and deprivation of a procedural right. We hold that it does not. We thus affirm the district court’s dismissal of Plaintiffs’ complaint for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.

I.

A.

For many, cost is the greatest barrier to attending college.1 The average rate charged to full-time undergraduate students for tuition