Students win right to sue colleges in court, not forced arbitration
H.R. 3938 — CLASS Act of 2025 · Filed by Maxine Waters (D-CA) · 12 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 11, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill prohibits colleges and universities from requiring students to sign arbitration agreements that would force disputes into private arbitration instead of court. It also bars colleges from imposing other restrictions on students' legal rights, such as limiting jury trials, choice of law, or venue. Students would retain the right to sue their institution in court, individually or collectively.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is to strip colleges of the power to force arbitration on students and to prohibit other restrictions on legal remedies. It is a consumer/student protection measure that restores access to courts.
What the text implies
- Colleges may face increased litigation exposure and higher legal costs, potentially passed to students through tuition increases or reduced institutional spending on other services.
- Arbitration clauses in enrollment agreements become unenforceable retroactively (1 year after enactment), creating potential disputes over existing student contracts signed under prior law.
- Class-action litigation against institutions becomes viable, which may increase settlement costs and insurance premiums for higher education institutions.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Students gain enforceable legal rights to pursue claims in court rather than being forced into private arbitration, which typically favors institutions through cost barriers, confidentiality, and limited appeal rights. The bill restores access to courts, juries, and collective action—core democratic remedies.
Who stands to gain
- plaintiff's attorneys (increased litigation volume)
- students (restored court access and collective action rights)
Named in the bill
institutions of higher education, students, Federal Arbitration Act (Chapter 1, Title 9, U.S. Code), Higher Education Act of 1965 (Section 102, Section 487)
Where it stands
12 cosponsors: 12 Democrats.
- Jun 11, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 11, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary and House Committee on Education and Workforce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
4 lobbying clients named this bill on 6 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $4,850,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 68 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 72% of bills with at least one filing.
Maxine Waters, the sponsor, reported $453,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Association for Justice — $3,610,000 on 2 filings
- Associated Builders and Contractors Inc — $700,000 on 1 filing
- Cms Energy Corp — $370,000 on 2 filings
- Itc Holdings Corp — $170,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,656 characters) on Sep 7, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,398 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-23.
“Students win right to sue colleges in court, not forced arbitration” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr3938 Report an error
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