This week the Supreme Court heard two separate legal challenges to a student loan forgiveness program proposed by the Biden administration: Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown. The plan aims to cancel up to $20,000 of student debt for low-to middle-income families, and was rolled out last August during the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic. It relied on the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (or the HEROES Act), a law passed after 9/11 that gives the secretary of education the power to make changes to student loan programs during a national emergency. At the heart of the challenges to the plan are major questions surrounding the scope of presidential power; the doctrine of “standing”—or who can bring a lawsuit in court; and whether certain issues are of such “vast economic and political significance” that they should be left to the legislative branch and not decisions of federal agencies. William Araiza of Brooklyn Law School and Anastasia Boden of the Cato Institute join to unpack the arguments on both sides of the cases. Host Jeffrey Rosen moderates.
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Today’s show was produced by Lana Ulrich, Bill Pollock and Julia Redpath. It was engineered by Greg Scheckler. Research was provided by Liam Kerr, Sophia Gardell, Emily Campbell, Sam Desai, and Lana Ulrich.
Participants
William Araiza is the Stanley A. August Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. Professor Araiza is a member of the American Law Institute, and has served as the Chair of the Administrative Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools. His most recent book is Rebuilding Expertise: Creating Effective and Trustworthy Regulation in an Age of Doubt (2022). He filed an amicus brief in support of the Biden administration.
Anastasia Boden is the director of the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies. Prior to joining Cato she was a civil rights attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation. She also co‐created the podcast, Dissed, which tells the stories behind notable Supreme Court dissents. She filed an amicus brief on behalf of the challenges to the student loan-forgiveness plan.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- William Araiza et al, Brief of Legal Scholars as Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioners, in Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown
- Anastasia P. Boden et al., Brief of the Cato Institute and Manhattan Institute as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents, in Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown
- Biden v. Nebraska, oral argument (transcript and audio via C-SPAN)
- Department of Education v. Brown, oral argument (transcript and audio via C-SPAN)
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.
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