--- title: In Return to Civility, Joe Biden’s DOJ Backs Up Betsy DeVos description: Joe Biden’s campaign message was all about restoring order to Washington, a return of professionalism to government and an embrace of D.C.’s norms. canonical: https://time.com/5938872/in-a-disorienting-return-to-civility-joe-bidens-doj-backs-up-betsy-devos/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-02-12T18:35:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:09:58.119Z article:section: Politics og:title: In Return to Civility, Joe Biden’s DOJ Backs Up Betsy DeVos og:description: Joe Biden’s campaign message was all about restoring order to Washington, a return of professionalism to government and an embrace of D.C.’s norms. og:url: https://time.com/5938872/in-a-disorienting-return-to-civility-joe-bidens-doj-backs-up-betsy-devos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd114554a2a287f8/698a173416d8849b1ac391d5/GettyImages-1206287439.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: DeVos Hearing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: In Return to Civility, Joe Biden’s DOJ Backs Up Betsy DeVos twitter:description: Joe Biden’s campaign message was all about restoring order to Washington, a return of professionalism to government and an embrace of D.C.’s norms. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd114554a2a287f8/698a173416d8849b1ac391d5/GettyImages-1206287439.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # In a Disorienting Return to Civility, Joe Biden’s DOJ Backs Up Betsy DeVos > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=bde38d79-d6cd-4d1d-8d28-787d9f4bb3dd&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: "We must end this uncivil war that pits red versus blue," President Joe Biden Delivers Inauguration Speech [Watch (HLS stream): "We must end this uncivil war that pits red versus blue," President Joe Biden Delivers Inauguration Speech](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/hinytvyW.m3u8) (2:43)  _Published 2021-01-20. Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on Wednesday on a cold, bright afternoon in the nation’s capital._  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Feb 12, 2021 6:35 PM UTC Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on Wednesday on a cold, bright afternoon in the nation’s capital.  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Feb 12, 2021 6:35 PM UTC _This article is part of the The DC Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/newsletter%5Fopt-in?qs=3a19a0aa35903a2d9f214b74f69a37910b58de73cf3f2b89adc123fac024f0478c72f91010ae9d01f08f46c616068cab3e74726837cd2cce70dac3796e46c2b4) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox every weekday._ Joe Biden’s campaign message was all about restoring order to Washington, a return of professionalism to government and an embrace of D.C.’s norms. _Biden the Bland_ wasn’t a sexy sell, but it worked for a country weary of Donald Trump’s antics, antagonism and ambivalence about the actual job he was elected to do. Need proof that Biden’s pledge to get things back to normal is more than words? In a little-noticed legal [filing](https://static.politico.com/cc/b0/ee17f96b4b53a477e9c41efaa7bb/devos-motion-to-quash.pdf) this week, Biden’s Justice Department joined a motion — wait for it — to help Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos quash a subpoena in a class-action suit over her Department’s alleged [practice](https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/10/biden-devos-loan-forgiveness-468375) of [slow-walking](https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/12/01/devos-debt-forgiveness-free-college/) loan [forgiveness](https://studentaid.gov/data-center/student/loan-forgiveness/borrower-defense-data) for students at for-profit colleges. It’s not that Biden’s team agrees with what she is accused of doing. It’s that the norms and rules of Washington typically don’t demand former Cabinet Secretaries spend their time in depositions about their tenure in public office. Doing so “would threaten the separation of powers, chill agency decision-making, discourage public service, and create potential for abuse or harassment,” Biden’s Justice Department wrote in its motion. At the center of this ruckus is a class-action suit filed by 160,000 former students at for-profit colleges. They claim they were swindled by dodgy colleges and, as such, they shouldn’t have to pay back the federal student loans. In other words, they borrowed government money to buy junk courses, and the feds should let them off the hook under an Education Department program known as the Borrower Defense to Repayment. The forgiveness program was rarely used before 2015, but it quickly picked up widespread notice when Corinthian Colleges Inc. closed. That for-profit organization broke the dam on scrutiny for such non-traditional campuses and gave the Obama Administration an opportunity to reposture policy toward such groups. Of the 338,062 applications submitted since then, roughly 1 in 5 has been successful through the end of November, according to Education Department [data](https://studentaid.gov/data-center/student/loan-forgiveness/borrower-defense-data). The plaintiffs in the case at hand say the DeVos-era Education Department slow-walked their claims while rushing through others, with little transparency or explanation. The case is moving ahead against the Education Department, with the Justice Department doing its job as defense counsel. With DeVos no longer serving as Secretary of Education, it potentially opened her to some legal exposure. And that’s why DOJ signed onto DeVos’ attorney’s motion to stop her inclusion in the case. There’s always been a sense of rarified fraternity among Cabinet members and elite Washington insiders who get to wield power largely without the nuisance of accountability. It’s why you can’t sue the President when your tax returns are audited. Yes, these individuals are in charge, but you also can’t expect them to answer for everything done under their auspices. Doing so would open every Secretary of Education to litigation for every microaggression in a lecture hall, discriminiation in every athletic department and fight on a playground. The inevitable bad deeds would all but prohibit anyone worth their salt from ever signing up for government service. It would be like every fender bender ending up on Pete Buttigieg’s new Transportation Secretary desk. The Biden DOJ motion isn’t groundbreaking for its substance. It’s actually a pretty routine filing. But it’s something we didn’t see for four years under Trump, who wanted to weaponize his Justice Department against his enemies and deploy its lawyers as personal counsel. The very fact that we’re noting this — at the very moment Trump’s new lawyers are mounting his defense in a Senate impeachment [trial](https://time.com/5938609/republicans-trump-impeachment-trial/) — says the government is starting to return to normal. For even the most liberal corners of Washington, a DOJ defense of DeVos is something to celebrate in service of that goal. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the daily D.C. Brief newsletter._](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/politics?source=dc%5Farticle) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5938872/in-a-disorienting-return-to-civility-joe-bidens-doj-backs-up-betsy-devos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5938872/in-a-disorienting-return-to-civility-joe-bidens-doj-backs-up-betsy-devos/"},"headline":"In a Disorienting Return to Civility, Joe Biden’s DOJ Backs Up Betsy DeVos","datePublished":"2021-02-12T18:35:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T09:09:58.119Z","description":"Joe Biden’s campaign message was all about restoring order to Washington, a return of professionalism to government and an embrace of D.C.’s norms.","url":"https://time.com/5938872/in-a-disorienting-return-to-civility-joe-bidens-doj-backs-up-betsy-devos/","keywords":["The D.C. 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