2022.13: Promises Kept and Unkept

Professor EJ Fagan

Assistant Professor of Political Science

University of Illinois at Chicago

Bronx Beat Podcast

Selected publications of Professor Fagan

• "Issue Ownership and the Priorities of Party Elites in the United States, 2004–2016," 2021, Party Politics 27(1): 149-160.

• "The Power of the Party: Conflict Expansion and the Agenda Diversity of Interest Groups," with Zachary A. McGee and Herschel F. Thomas, 2021, Political Research Quarterly 74(1): 90-102.

• "Problem Solving and the Demand for Expert Information in Congress," with Zachary A. McGee, 2020, Legislative Studies Quarterly 47(1): 53-77.

• "Using the Comparative Agendas Project to Examine Interest Group Behavior," with Brooke Shannon, 2020, Interest Groups & Advocacy 9: 361-372.

Books that inspired Professor Fagan to pursue Political Science

• Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis (2004)

• Lobbying and Policy Change: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why by Frank R. Baumgartner, Jeffrey M. Berry, Marie Hojnacki, David C. Kimball, and Beth L. Leech (2009)

Topics discussed in the podcast

• US Constitution

• Emergency Powers Act (1976)- powers given to the president after the declaration of a national emergency

  • International Emergency Economic Powers Act (1977) - gives the president the power to impose sanctions on foreign governments

• Status of Joe Biden's 2020 campaign promises

• Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States

  • Final Report

• Supreme Court precedents that current court might overturn

  • Roe v. Wade (1973)

    • Provided a Constitutionally-protected right to an abortion

  • Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

    • Established the right to privacy, and permitted the use of contraception by married couples

  • Mapp v. Ohio (1961)

    • Prohibited law enforcement authorities to use evidence in court that was obtained unlawfully (exclusionary rule)

    • This case is not in danger of being overturned. It was mistakenly referenced in the podcast. Professor Fagan meant to cite Griswold v. Connecticut.

  • Loving v. Virginia (1967)

    • Made interracial marriage legal

  • Lawrence v. Texas (2003)

    • Found laws criminalizing same-sex intimate activities unconstitutional

  • Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)

    • Legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States

    • Next target after Roe v. Wade?

  • Minimum wage laws?

• Thermostatic reaction of the public, explaining why political power shifts back and forth between Democrats and Republicans every 2-4 years

• "Fairness" of 2022 Congressional maps due to redistricting

  • FiveThirtyEight

  • Race to the White House

• Is the US headed to another civil war?

  • Barbara F. Walter