UW–Madison’s Nicholas Hillman is the author of an op-ed that was published in Inside Higher Ed titled, “A Viewer’s Guide to Today’s Supreme Court Hearing,” which provides detailed analysis of the challenges to President Biden’s debt-cancellation plan that the Supreme Court heard on Feb. 28.
Hillman is a professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, and the director of the Student Success through Applied Research (SSTAR) lab.
To start, Hillman provides background information on the hearing, stating that “the hearing will include two different cases: Biden v. Nebraska and U.S. Department of Education v. Brown. Both cases stem from President Biden’s August 2022 announcement that the U.S. Department of Education will cancel up to $20,000 in debt for Pell Grant recipients and up to $10,000 for non–Pell Grant recipients, so long as their loans are held by ED and the individual has annual earnings below $125,000 (or $250,000 for married couples).”
He then explains that the Supreme Court will hear two questions regarding the debt-cancellation plan: Do respondents have standing, and does debt relief exceed the Secretary of Education’s authority?
Check out the full op-ed to read Hillman’s analysis of these questions.
Hillman writes in summary, “Over the past six months, I have been scrambling to keep up with all the news around the Biden administration’s debt-cancellation plan. Writing this guide helped me synthesize the key issues I think are interesting and relevant to the case and that I will be watching most closely during oral arguments today. There are certainly more issues at play than what’s outlined above, and I hope this guide will also help me look back and see whether the issues that seem most pressing now are what the justices ultimately focus on in their decision, which will likely come out by the end of June.”