Category: Politics

For our series Conversations on the State of Democracy, I sat down with Robert Reich near the Berkeley campus where he has spent a portion of his career. Reich was the Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Cabinet, served in the Ford administration and was an economic advisor on Obama’s transition. He’s taught public policy […]

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The principle [of emergency power] lies about like a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need. —Justice Robert H. Jackson, dissenting in Korematsu v. United States (1944) The president will do it. The predicate is being laid perfectly” [referring to President Trump’s […]

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Gasoline prices are rising again, adding to voter concerns about the cost of living. Yet in the Philadelphia region, a new company, Freedom Fuel, is suddenly selling gasoline substantially below its competitors at more than two dozen stations. President Trump has personally promoted Freedom Fuel, and the White House has presented it as evidence that […]

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Last October, I wrote in The Washington Spectator that the Trump administration was constructing an integrated system to constrain voting and criminalize political opposition. Claims of election fraud, domestic terrorism, foreign financing and organized political violence were being used broadly to recast the lawful administration of elections, political fundraising, protest against government abuses, and resistance […]

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On April 2, 2025, so-called “Liberation Day”, President Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and put high tariffs on US imports. His base tariff was 10%, but most countries faced higher rates, including 20% for the European Union, and over 40% for Cambodia and Vietnam. Trump has claimed repeatedly that he loves […]

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