“This case goes a little farther than some in that it holds assault weapons fall outside the Second Amendment. Most other courts have assumed that they fall inside and are still subject to ban,” law professor Joseph Blocher says about a federal appeals court in Maryland upholding a law banning military-style weapons.
Read More in The Christian Science MonitorCategory: Politics-Public Policy
Podcast: The Smart Border
How can the U.S. increase security along the southern border without building a wall? Stephen Kelly, a visiting professor of the practice in the Sanford School of Public Policy, says more cooperation between law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border is key.
Listen on Policy 360
Trump Taps New National Security Adviser
Political scientist Peter Feaver, a scholar on civil-military ties, says he expects Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster to take a skeptical view of Russia, seeing Moscow as a dubious partner and major potential threat to U.S. security. And Feaver says he expects a similar skepticism toward Iran, whose support for proxy groups across the Middle East many senior military officials say has gone unchecked.
Read More in The Washington Post
Energy Discussions Live on as EPA Rule Faces Death
If there’s an enduring upside to U.S. EPA’s doomed Clean Power Plan, it’s that it spurred some much-needed discussions about energy on the state level, says Brian Murray, director for economic analysis at Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. “There really was not much going on in terms of coordination and dialogue between energy and environmental regulators at the state level before all this.”
Read More at E&E News
DHS Considered National Guard for Immigration Roundups
Historian Gunther Peck says mass deportations would hurt numerous businesses. “Many businesses profit from undocumented workers and would be very hard pressed to replace them. They do work that actual citizens don’t want to do, and they do it for low wages. So, if you were to deport and round up a lot of those hardworking men and women, you would be hurting a lot of American businesses.”
Read More at WRAL
Good Luck Making America Safe Again Without Mexican Military
“Most Americans don’t remember that we invaded Mexico at least three times, and forced it to give up nearly half of the territory they won in their independence from Spain,” says public policy professor Stephen Kelly, who served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico from 2004 to 2006. “Nowhere is that feeling of invasion, that Mexico has been robbed and violated, more strongly felt than in the Mexican army.”
Read More in McClatchy
The Most Dangerous Job in Washington
“A national security adviser has to successfully manage three key constituencies: First and foremost his relationships with the president, but also his relations with other senior officials in the West Wing, and with Cabinet officials in various agencies,” says Peter Feaver, who served on the National Security Council under President George W. Bush.
Read More in Politico
Trump, an Outsider Demanding Loyalty, Struggles to Fill Top Posts
“The problem is that with each successive episode, it raises the stakes for the next one,” says political scientist Peter Feaver, who was a strategic planning adviser to President George W. Bush. “It’s going to be hard for the next outsider to accept the national security job and not request the ability to make personnel changes.”
Read More in The New York Times
In Corporate Activism, Authenticity is Key
When CEOs speak out on a social or environmental issue, they should stay true to their personal and professional values and not seek simply to strengthen their brand, leaders involved in corporate activism say. “This is a core strategic issue,” says Fuqua School of Business professor Aaron Chatterji. “Every firm is thinking about this now.”
Read More From Fuqua School of Business
Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch and the Rise of Originalism
“People like (Bork and Scalia) have really succeeded in persuading everyone from the right to the left that we ought to do more historical research in constitutional interpretation than maybe we did under the Warren court,” says law professor Ernest Young. “Everyone is pretty much persuaded that history counts, (but) very few people think that only history matters.”
Read More in The Christian Science Monitor
Trump Focus Misses Growing Risk From Right-Wing Extremism
Focusing solely on Islamic extremism “would be a huge mistake,” says David Schanzer, director of Duke’s Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security. He says programs meant to counter extremism “were a hard sell for the Muslim community even before” the election and that Muslim communities see them “as a form of surveillance.”
Read More in Foreign Policy
Inside CEO, Consumer Activism In Trump Era
Donald Trump represents the ultimate intersection of business and politics, and within that crisscross sits a new type of business activism. Corporate CEOs have been vocal about the president’s action on immigrants and refugees. Aaron Chatterji, associate professor at The Fuqua School of Business, is interviewed about the trend.
Listen on WFAE
