Visiting Professor, University of California, Washington Center

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Right on Ron

Remembering the former California Congressman

July 31, 2018 • by John Lawrence

Ron Dellums was elected to Congress during my first few months in Berkeley, where I was studying for a Ph.D. in American History. For someone who had grown up very involved in electoral politics, and then had his commitment soured by the horror of Vietnam, Dellums provided an extraordinary transition ...

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The Class of ’74: Congress after Watergate and the Roots of Partisanship

An excerpt from John A. Lawrence’s latest book

July 24, 2018 • by John Lawrence

“A Different Kind of Congress” The Class [of ‘74] brought more than support for reform to archaic House [of Representatives] procedures: it brought generational change, a merging of the external activism of the streets -- the campus, civil rights, and anti-war movements, the battles for women’s rights and consumer protection, the ...

The Class of ’74: Congress after Watergate and the Roots of Partisanship

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A Democratic Tea Party?

An incoming wave of ideological hardliners

July 21, 2018 • by John Lawrence

The surprise defeat of NY Rep. Joe Crowley by non-traditional, anti-establishment newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has fueled extensive speculation about worrisome chasms opening within the Democratic Party as it struggles to reclaim a House majority. As with the victories of other newcomers in a number of races around the country, some speculate ...

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Trump’s State Sponsored Child Abuse

The Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy

June 21, 2018 • by John Lawrence

Having been the main congressional staff person behind the drafting and passage of a major federal child welfare law in 1980, I would have to say that Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the Jordanian diplomat who serves as the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, has got it about right. Donald ...

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Sabotaging the “Summit”

Trump and the North Korean Summit Meeting

June 4, 2018 • by John Lawrence

It is not unreasonable to ask whether Donald Trump and his hapless band of congressional allies are purposefully sabotaging the operations of the United States government, or are simply so incompetent that they cannot help stumbling into both dysfunction and ridicule by sheer misfortune. In all likelihood, it is a ...

Migration

A Civics Lesson for Trump and Sessions

Sanctuary Cities and the Trump Administration

April 25, 2018 • by John Lawrence

As if we needed any further reminders of the reckless disregard for law and the Constitution rampant in the Trump Era, a panel of Republican federal judges has forcefully rejected efforts to punish so-called Sanctuary Cities by curtailing federal grant funds. It is a fair barometer to assume that when ...

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The Art of [Breaking] the Deal

Trump Administration to roll back national auto efficiency and emissions standards

April 21, 2018 • by John Lawrence

The Trump Administration’s decision to roll back national auto efficiency and emissions standards and challenge California’s right to set tougher criteria will not only make Americans sicker and increase dependency on foreign oil. Trump’s unilateral action will violate an understanding that taxpayers would not finance the revitalization of a non-competitive ...

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Last Speaker of the House to Leave, Turn Out the Lights

Paul Ryan’s Decision to Quit

April 14, 2018 • by John Lawrence

It has been 32 years since a Speaker of the U.S House of Representatives has truly left office of his – or her – own volition. Paul Ryan has not been forced to resign like Jim Wright following a scandal or John Boehner following repeated defections by his own troops. ...

Last Speaker of the House to Leave, Turn Out the Lights

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Lamb’s Victory and the 1974 Precedent

What the past may predict for the 2018 mid-terms

March 18, 2018 • by John Lawrence

Conor Lamb’s improbable but likely victory in Tuesday’s congressional race in the 18th district of Pennsylvania raises comparisons to the 1974 victories of Democratic candidates running in traditionally Republican districts. The significance of those earlier upsets as precursors to a November wave victory, is recounted in my just-published book, The Class of ...

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The Speaker’s Grovel

The constitutional role of the Speaker of the House

February 12, 2018 • by John Lawrence

We may not know how the ultimate budget impasse of 2018 will be resolved (the next shutdown deadline having been delayed six weeks). Nor do we know the resolution of the increasingly tense DACA dilemma – unnecessarily created by President Trump’s decision to rescind the broadly supported program. But as ...

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Courts Rethinking Gerrymandering

Pennsylvania Supreme Court throws out congressional districts drawn by republicans

January 28, 2018 • by John Lawrence

Whenever a discussion of the origins and causes of contemporary partisanship takes place, it doesn’t take long for the subject to turn to the pernicious topic of gerrymandering: drawing legislative district lines to enhance the probability that one party will win a larger number of seats than the partisan vote ...

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Santa Claus Brings the 1% a Tax Bill

Did the GOP leave something under your tree? Probably not.

December 22, 2017 • by John Lawrence

Not that the outcome was ever in doubt. As I have written before, tax cuts – especially for the wealthy and corporations – are the sine qua non of Republican governance: the essential reason the circus that is the Trump-McConnell-Ryan Express rolled into town. Unlike efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, ...