WashU Experts

Sociologist John N. Robinson III says President Joe Biden’s executive orders are an important first step in the fight against systemic racism, but to keep fighting because there’s an “historic opportunity” before us.

Radhakrishnan Gopalan, professor of finance at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, says President Joe Biden’s plan to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour is too aggressive. His research shows raising the minimum wage now could slow job growth.

David Cunningham, chair of sociology at Washington University in St. Louis, says Biden’s administration can and should make every effort to defeat the rise of political extremism and white supremacy, but should also be aware of unintended consequences.

Faculty experts from across Washington University in St. Louis draw upon their research, their instruction, their experience and their thought leadership to proffer insight and ideas for the new administration, the new beginning.

Dr. Karen Joynt Maddox expects the new Biden/Kamala Harris administration to retool and reinforce Obamacare, rather than the previous administration’s failed attempts to repeal and replace. She offers areas ripe for both quick and gradual change: reinstating health discrimination protection, investing in insurance enrollment, creating the “public option,” and broadening competition in insurance markets.

Geophysicist Michael Wysession, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, teaches a popular undergraduate course called “Energy and the Environment.” He breaks down President-elect Joe Biden’s 9-point Energy Plan, point-by-point.

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.

While there are no formal rules about how the Senate should function in the event of an even split, there is a template, says an expert on congressional politics at Washington University in St. Louis.

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.