WashU Experts

The recent search of the office, home and hotel of Michael Cohen, lawyer to President Donald Trump, is a pivotal event when it comes to issues of attorney-client privilege and client confidentiality, says Peter Joy, professor at the School of Law and an expert on criminal law.

Constitutional law expert Greg Magarian, of Washington University and a former clerk for retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, said Stevens makes a compelling historical and legal case for amending the Constitution. At the same time, he warns that the path Stevens advocates would present distinctive challenges and hazards.

The century-old government convention of daylight saving time takes effect this weekend, but it can be hard for our bodies to handle. Washington University circadian rhythm expert Erik Herzog offers some tips to help us adjust.

Two U.S. retailers made moves this week to regulate their gun sales based on principle — moves that legislators failed to make in recent years despite public outcry following each incident in a line of mass-shooting tragedies. A pair of Washington University in St. Louis experts say that these actions represent “an expansion of corporate social responsibility,” even if the retailers financially may suffer amid something of a consumer backlash.

Half-century-old advice from Billy Graham, who died Feb. 21, was in line with cultural and sexual norms of the 1950s and later decades, when many of Graham’s contemporary evangelical preachers fell from grace after widely publicized extramarital affairs, says R. Marie Griffith, director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis.

President Donald Trump’s lawyer claims that he personally sent $130,000 to porn star Stephanie Clifford, who states that she had an affair with Trump prior to his election. The lawyer, Michael Cohen, claims the payment was legal, but was it ethical? Washington University in St. Louis legal ethics expert Peter Joy weighs in.

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide this term whether a defense lawyer may admit a client’s guilt against the client’s wishes, and it is unlikely that the court will rule against the client, said a criminal law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.

During his first year in office, President Donald Trump spoke about high drug prices but took little action to address the problem. His budget proposal, released this week, does lay out a strategy — though what is most notable is not what’s included, but rather what is missing. Rachel Sachs, an expert on drug pricing and policy at Washington University in St. Louis, weighs in.

The current volatility of the U.S. stock market is no cause for alarm, but a Washington University in St. Louis expert who helped to create a volatility index knows the difficulty in predicting if a fluctuation like the current one will subside quickly or slowly: “It is hard to time volatility spikes.”

President Donald Trump has accused congressional Democrats who didn’t applaud his State of the Union address of treason. That accusation has no basis in law, and it reflects a deeply disturbing political philosophy, says an expert on constitutional law at Washington University in St. Louis.