Maxwell School News and Faculty Media, Opinion and Analysis

Banks comments on President Bush's handling of 9/11 attacks in South China Morning Post

"Bush and many others overreacted to 9/11," says Professor Emeritus William Banks. "I blame him and especially (vice-president) Dick Cheney and then (defense secretary) Donald Rumsfeld for the reckless policies," he says. But Bush was "never nativist," and his recent efforts on immigration are not a "whitewashing" of history but appear to be a genuine effort at problem-solving, Banks adds.

April 28, 2021

Jackson quoted in Vox article on police reform

Following the Derek Chauvin verdict, President Joe Biden called for changing policing by "acknowledging and confronting, head-on, systemic racism and the racial disparities that exist in policing and in our criminal justice system more broadly." One such idea is to abolish the police. Proponents think communities can work together to regulate themselves without "anti-Black, white supremacist institutions," like the American criminal justice system and policing—which got its start with slave patrols—according to Jenn Jackson, assistant professor of political science. Read more in the Vox article, "9 ideas to solve the broken institution of policing."

April 27, 2021

Keck talks to PolitiFact about court packing

Thomas Keck, Michael O. Sawyer Chair of Constitutional Law and Politics, says a court expansion can be justified. "If it’s the case that Sen. McConnell and other Republican leaders engaged in illegitimate court packing of their own from 2016 to 2020, then from the Democrats’ perspective, an additional round of court reform is necessary to correct for those earlier rounds," he says.

April 26, 2021

See related: Congress, Law, Political Parties, SCOTUS, United States

Jackson quoted in the Guardian article on the use of tasers by police

"The reforms haven’t changed the way that especially black and brown folks experience policing,” says Jenn Jackson, assistant professor of political science. "We are still seeing the same violence…Whatever tools that police officers have at their disposal will be used to physically harm those people, whether it’s a billy club, hose, a dog, a Taser or a gun."

April 21, 2021

See related: Crime & Violence, Law, United States

Thompson discusses 19th century distrust of nuns in Global Sisters Report

April 19, 2021

See related: Religion, United States

Radcliffe quoted in Marketplace piece on companies, voter restrictions

Dana Radcliffe, adjunct professor of public administration and international affairs, says that although taking a stand can be tricky, "if companies are dragging their feet or not getting involved when fundamental questions of democracy are at stake, that could be a long-term threat."

April 15, 2021

See related: Ethics, Government, Labor, U.S. Elections, United States

Jacobson discusses the removal of US troops from Afghanistan on MSNBC

"I just think that he [Biden] has been given, by his team, a false binary choice: either we stay indefinitely with a massive commitment, or we leave," says Mark Jacobson, assistant dean for Washington Programs who served in Afghanistan with both the Army and Navy reserves. "And there's a lot of areas in between, a lot of work we can do that is beyond that binary choice."

April 15, 2021

Gadarian speaks to City & State about NY State Sen. Rachel May

Read more in the City & State article, "Rachel May, a different kind of upstate Democrat."

April 14, 2021

Reeher quoted in Newsday article on Gov. Cuomo's budget

Gov. Andrew Cuomo adopted a $212 billion state budget last week that raised spending $18 billion, or nearly 10 percent.

April 14, 2021

See related: COVID-19, Economic Policy, New York State

Keck discusses Supreme Court reform, crises of democracy in Washington Post

"Throughout U.S. history, crises of democracy have prompted discussions of Supreme Court reform because the court itself has often been perceived as a barrier to democratic preservation and renewal," writes Thomas Keck, Michael O. Sawyer Chair of Constitutional Law and Politics.

April 13, 2021

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