Author: Neil Schoenherr

The U.S. House and Senate are at a stalemate over enacting sweeping police reforms in the wake of the death of George Floyd and other Black Americans. The gulf between the Democratic and Republican proposed solutions is wide and neither side seems willing to bend, says an expert on criminal legal reform at Washington University in St. Louis.

Gen. Roscoe Robinson Jr. should join his fellow U.S. Army generals, Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, as immortals on the Loop.

The coronavirus will fade eventually, but the uncertainties of today’s world continue to grow. It is more important than ever to build a long-term financial security system for U.S. families, and this system should include undocumented workers.

The Cordell Institute for Policy in Medicine & Law has received a $100,000 grant from Microsoft Corp. to hire a fellow to work on the institute’s Cloud Civil Liberties Project.

In the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks and many more, a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis finds that religion may offer a protective role for black adolescent boys who experience police abuse.

All of the issues surrounding COVID-19 trace back to a single legal stream, says an expert on drug policy and health law at Washington University in St. Louis. The lack of diagnostic testing. The lagging development and distribution of personal protective equipment. Shortages of ventilators. Finding prescription medication to treat the disease. They all are related by law and policy.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision June 18 that the Trump Administration cannot shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program will allow more than 700,000 “Dreamers” to worry a bit less and continue focusing on their jobs, education and futures, said an immigration law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

What if we dedicated ourselves to making our home, St. Louis, not a name on a list of racial violence and inequity but instead a model of a future of urban equity and democracy? What if we led the nation in finding models for police accountability and equitable policing?

In the end, the best argument for eliminating qualified immunity is less about deterrence and more about symbolism. Qualified immunity routinely requires courts to say that there will be no penalty for a police officer who has violated the Constitution. That is the wrong message.

We surely don’t have all of the answers but we have settled on some lessons. We will teach our students to press forward, because there is no real alternative. We will teach them to challenge unjust laws because, as Frederick Douglass said, “power concedes nothing without demand.” We will inspire them to harness their outrage and energy into new and better policies.