Author: Neil Schoenherr

The current atmosphere is crisis, but change is born in crisis. Large-scale change regarding race and democracy is possible. A first priority should be fixing our racially-biased and fragile voting system, so that everyone participates freely and fairly, and all votes are counted equally and directly.

Bad faith partisan arguments about state legislatures and election law may sound reasoned and eloquent, but they chip away at the rule of law — laying the groundwork for future strained arguments restricting the right to vote, banning democracy-enhancing initiatives such as voter-initiated redistricting commissions and (ultimately) overturning the results of free and fair elections.

As Donald Trump prepares to leave the presidency Jan. 20 in the wake of being accused of fomenting the riot at the U.S. Capitol, he is reportedly considering an unprecedented move: the self-pardon. While no president has ever pardoned himself, the act might be more trouble than its worth for Trump, notes Dan Epps, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

In light of the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol building, many Democrats, and even some Republicans, have called for the use of the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office. What is that amendment and how does it work? Washington University in St. Louis law professor Greg Magarian explains.

When a group violently attacks a government institution, in an effort to change the lawful governmental order, it is insurrection, says a law expert on the U.S. Constitution at Washington University in St. Louis.

Lindsay Stark, associate professor at the Brown School, has received a one-year $290,017 grant from UNICEF to assess gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of the new $900 billion federal stimulus package, the moratorium on evictions for renters will be extended by one month, through the end of January. The help could not come soon enough, says an expert on social and economic development at the Brown School. However, without more intentional, long-term solutions and investments, this aid will only postpone an inevitable housing crisis.

Researchers at the Brown School are conducting discussion groups with parents and staff in the Special School District of St. Louis County to develop communication tools surrounding COVID-19 testing and vaccination. The research is funded by a two-year, $5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to offer 50,000 saliva tests to students, teachers and staff in the six special education schools operated by the district.

The Brown School’s Health Communication Research Laboratory has received two grants totaling $1.57 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to understand and address COVID-19 health disparities. 

Neil Richards, the Koch Distinguished Professor in the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, addressed a Dec. 9 hearing of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where he pushed for passage of a comprehensive law that would provide appropriate safeguards, enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for consumers when it comes to data sharing.