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naraburns  nihil supernum  3yr ago (text post)   34980 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023

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I've seen people try to argue that there is no standing, but I can't find them convincing because the general argument implies that government debt forgiveness is never subject to judicial review. If this were such a plenary power of the executive -- because we never can go far enough in the courts to read what Congress wrote -- that would seem to mean that pretty much any forgiveness plan would be acceptable, including downright stupid things like "debt forgiveness for contributors to my campaign." There be lots of dragons.

I haven't seen anyone argue that the specifics of this case cause a lack of standing, so I've taken it largely as a sign that the people making such arguments are partisans for whom the ends justify the means.

I think it’s simple. Democracy needs people being reasonably. You can always find some poorly worded law to do whatever you want. If we wanted a law to be specific then it has no flexibility for the real intent and would also require thousands of pages laying out every situation.

This seems to me like Biden can say textually he’s allowed. It does feel the mountains into mole holes logic but that’s not Law. Everyone knows the bill wasn’t designed to authorize this usage. A good faith attempt by Biden would have to been pass explicit bill.

The standing / immunities debate was front and center at the oral arguments.

Thanks for posting this. The SG in rebuttal seems to be suggesting that any change to a provision is both a waiver and a modification. But the statute says waiver or modification. If every action is both, the statute would read the waiver and modification (or suggests you can have one but not the other).

I don’t know if im reading too much into the SG’s comments but he was responding to the AG who took pains to separate what is a waiver and a modification.

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