Loper Bright’s Impact on Education Law

The Brookings Institution hosted an essay by two professors, Raquel Muñiz and Rebecca Natow, profiling Loper Bright‘s impact on education law. They write:

Since the case was decided in 2024, Loper has been cited by courts as justification to restrain executive agency actions relating to education. In Tennessee v. Cardona (2025), a federal district court in Kentucky cited Loper to state that the court would employ “its independent judgment in interpreting Title IX,” before holding that a Department of Education regulation “impermissibly redefine[d] discrimination on the basis of sex for purposes of Title IX” and “must be set aside.” In Missouri v. Trump (2025) (previously Missouri v. Biden), the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals barred the Department of Education from canceling student loans under the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) program. In its opinion, the Eighth Circuit cited Loper to state that an executive agency’s interpretation of a statute should receive “respect” but “not supersede” a court’s interpretation.

Read the full essay here.