Today, one of the nation’s largest purveyors of for-profit higher education, the DeVry Education Group, made a commitment to limit how much revenue it receives from federal student aid to 85 percent. Federal law stipulates that no more than 90 percent of revenue originate from federal aid. The move is broadly viewed as a response to broad criticisms of the for-profit education industry.
Eager to know more? Check out coverage from the Washington Post here.
Today, the Supreme Court today upheld the University of Texas at Austin’s (UT) consideration of race and ethnicity in college admissions. The ruling came in a case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, about the admissions practices at the UT, but will likely affect admissions and financial aid policies in most institutes of higher education.
In a 4-3 decision, the court ruled that that the primary reason that the plaintiff in the case was denied admission to the university was not its consideration of race in admissions, but of Texas’ “10 percent plan.” The plan, as enacted by the Texas legislature, allows students within the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class to be admitted to the public college or university of their choice.
The university does have “a continuing obligation to satisfy the strict scrutiny burden: by periodically reassessing the admission program’s constitutionality, and efficacy, in light of the school’s experience and the data it has gathered since adopting its admissions plan, and by tailoring its approach to ensure that race plays no greater role than is necessary to meet its compelling interests.”
After a shocking defeat last night in Indiana, Senator Ted Cruz announced his withdrawal from the 2016 presidential election. The move all but assures Trump the Republican presidential nomination in July.
Trump is now on course to be the first standard-bearer of a political party, who has not previously served in office, since President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower was a five-star general and the commander of Allied Forces in Europe during World War II, but had not previously served in elected office.
On Saturday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead of natural causes in a ranch in the Big Bend area of West Texas at Cibo Creek Ranch. He was 79. Having died in such a remote area, the declaring the justice dead, and disseminating the news of the his death, caused some some issue.
Known for his caustic dissents, Justice Scalia began his service on the court as an outsider, but his theories, initially viewed as idiosyncratic, gradually took hold, and not only on the right and not only in the courts. He has been called the most influential jurist of the last quarter century.
Justice Scalia was a champion of originalism, the theory of constitutional interpretation that seeks to apply the understanding of those who drafted and ratified the Constitution. In Scalia’s hands, originalism generally led to outcomes that pleased political conservatives, but not always. His approach was helpful to criminal defendants in cases involving sentencing and the cross-examination of witnesses.
Born in Trenton, New Jersey, he was an only child who quickly was a standout in high school and subsequently at Georgetown University (graduating summa cum laude) and Harvard Law School (graduating magna cum laude). After practicing law in Cleveland, OH and teaching law at the University of Washington, he was confirmed as Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel after the Watergate scandal — he was nominated by President Nixon and served under President Ford.
Eventually, Scalia was nominated and confirmed to the DC Court of Appeals by President Reagan in 1982. Reagan again nominated Scalia for the US Supreme Court in 1986, where he was unanimously confirmed. He was the longest serving justice on the court.
With the death of Justice Scalia, comes a political storm caused by his absence, which is made more keenly felt since there has never been a vacancy on the Supreme Court in a presidential election year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has declared that the Senate will not confirm a candidate until after the election of the new president. However, it is unlikely President Obama will not nominate a candidate. Even if the Senate does decide to move forward, it will be a long fight.
That said, the absence of Scalia does not mean that the court will cease working. Rather, the court will continue to work with the slim 5-4 conservative lean now gone. The even 4-4 split of the court calls into questions many of the cases on the docket and potential gridlock on issues, including congressional redistricting, abortion access, birth control access, forming unions, the Administration’s immigration and enviromental policy, affirmative action in college admissions, and more.
Holding with tradition, Justice Scalia will lie in repose at the Supreme Court on Friday.
Congress has screeched to a halt this week as DC continues to be quagmired in snow by Snowzilla.
A blizzard that blanketed the Northeast this weekend has disrupted the congressional calendar, with the House canceling all votes for the week and the Senate pushing its first vote to Wednesday evening. Congressional Democrats still plan on gather in Baltimore Wednesday evening until Friday for the annual Democratic issues retreat, which was truncating the Congressional calendar on the weather-shortened week. The Federal government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) closed all federal offices again on Monday as the District continues to dig out from record snow fall. Meanwhile the latest controversy in the District is the snow totals and how they are officially calculated for DC. The official totals, recorded at Reagan National Airport, came in at 17.8 inches of snow, and many are taking issue with this official recording. Dulles reported 29.3 inches of snow.
Other fun facts:
When Congress returns, they come back to a full and already truncated calendar. The FY 2017 Budget will be front and center as Congress waits for the President’s FY 2017 budget request as well as working through a potential budget itself. While Congress does not need to pass a budget for FY 2017 due to the budget deal reached last year that covered FY 2016 and FY 2017, reports of the rising deficit have brought federal budgeting again to the forefront. For the first time since 2009, the deficit will grow relative to the size of the economy, amounting to 2.9 percent of gross domestic product. This year’s deficit is projected to be $544 billion, up from $439 billion last year.
Politics will be in full swing as the Iowa and New Hampshire presidential primaries are fast approaching while the Senators and Members of Congress also begin to focus on their own primaries.