tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/obama-administration-18900/articlesObama administration – The Conversation2024-03-28T12:50:35Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2259912024-03-28T12:50:35Z2024-03-28T12:50:35ZThe amazing story of the man who created the latest narco-state in the Americas, and how the United States helped him every step of the way − until now<p>When Juan Orlando Hernández was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/honduras-president-juan-orlando-hernandez-corruption-trial-7c43423f12ff71859c370be2fc6ac5b0">convicted by a federal jury</a> in Manhattan in early March 2024, it marked a spectacular fall from grace: from being courted in the U.S. as a friendly head of state to facing the rest of his life behind bars, convicted of cocaine importation and weapons offenses.</p>
<p>“Juan Orlando Hernández abused his position as President of Honduras to operate the country as a narco-state where violent drug traffickers were allowed with virtual impunity,” said <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hernandez-former-president-honduras-convicted-manhattan-federal-court">U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland</a> following the jury conviction. <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hernandez-former-president-honduras-convicted-manhattan-federal-court">Anne Milgram</a>, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, added: “When the leader of Honduras and the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel work hand-in-hand to send deadly drugs into the United States, both deserve to be accountable.”</p>
<p>The conviction was a victory for the Justice Department and the DEA. During Hernández’s two terms in office, from 2014 to 2022, he and his acolytes transported more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hernandez-former-president-honduras-convicted-manhattan-federal-court">according to U.S. prosecutors</a>. The former head of state now faces a mandatory sentence of up to 40 years in prison; sentencing is scheduled for June 26. </p>
<p>But there’s more to this story. </p>
<p>As I explore in the book “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/21st-Century-Democracy-Promotion-in-the-Americas-Standing-up-for-the-Polity/Heine-Weiffen/p/book/9780415626378">21st Century Democracy Promotion in the Americas: Standing Up for the Polity</a>,” written in collaboration with the <a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/people/bw4844">Open University’s Britta Weiffen</a>, Honduras is a tragic example of what happens when a country becomes a narco-state. While its people suffer the consequences – the World Bank reports that about <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/honduras/overview">half the country currently lives under poverty</a> – its leaders grow rich through the drugs trade.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the way Hernández came to power and maintained that position for so long could provide “Exhibit A” in any indictment of U.S. policy toward Central America – and Latin America more generally – over the past few decades. </p>
<h2>Growing ties with cartels</h2>
<p>Up to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-arrests-united-states-honduras-extradition-207d739fe73c844ad5cf182eec030a8a">Hernández’s arrest in Tegucigalpa</a>, the Honduran capital, and extradition to the United States in January 2022, his biggest enabler had been none other than the U.S. government itself. </p>
<p>Presidents <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/01/15/president-obama-announces-presidential-delegation-honduras-attend-inaugu">Barack Obama</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/honduras-president-narcotrafficking-hernandez/2021/02/11/1fa96044-5f8c-11eb-ac8f-4ae05557196e_story.html">Donald Trump</a> <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/06/18/readout-vice-president-bidens-meeting-honduran-president-juan-orlando">and Joe Biden</a> all backed Hernández and allowed him to inflict enormous harm to Honduras and to the United States in the process.</p>
<p>How so? To answer this question, some background is needed. </p>
<p>On June 28, 2009, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/28/honduras-coup-president-zelaya">a classic military coup took place</a> in Honduras. In the wee hours of the morning, while still in his pajamas, President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya was unceremoniously escorted by armed soldiers from his home and <a href="https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-lt-honduras-divided-070709-2009jul07-story.html">flown to a neighboring country</a>. The coup leaders alleged that, by calling for a referendum on reforming the Honduran Constitution, the government was moving toward removing the one-term presidential term limit enshrined in the country’s charter and opening the door to authoritarianism.</p>
<p>Initially, then-President Barack Obama <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE55S5J2/">protested the coup</a> and took measures against those responsible – the right-wing opponents of Zelaya. </p>
<p>But the administration eventually relented and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN07503526/">allowed the coup leaders to prevail</a>, largely due to pressure from Republicans, who saw Zelaya as being <a href="https://www.cfr.org/interview/honduran-politics-and-chavez-factor">too close to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez</a>, whose leftist agenda was deemed by the GOP as a threat to U.S. interests. </p>
<p>The coup-makers simply ran the clock against the upcoming election date and installed their own candidate in the presidency, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/30/honduras-lobo-president">Porfirio Lobo of the National party</a>, whose son Fabio was also later convicted of cocaine trafficking. </p>
<h2>Washington looks the other way</h2>
<p>Lobo laid the foundations of Honduras as the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56947595">new century’s first narco-state</a>, allowing drug cartels to infiltrate the highest echelons of government and the security apparatus as cocaine trade became an increasingly central plank of the country’s economy.</p>
<p>All the while, the U.S. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/08/american-funding-honduran-security-forces-blood-on-our-hands">pumped tens of millions of dollars</a> <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/should-the-u-s-still-be-sending-military-aid-to-honduras">into building up Honduras’ police and military</a>, despite widespread allegations of being engaged in corruption, complicit in the drugs trade and engaged in <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016/country-chapters/honduras">human rights abuses</a>.</p>
<p>The dollars continued to flow when Lobo was succeeded in 2013 by his buddy and fellow National party member, Juan Orlando Hernández.</p>
<p>In 2017, Hernández – an ardent supporter of the 2009 coup – ran for a second term after the Supreme Court of Honduras <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0NE2T9/">pronounced this to be perfectly legal</a>.</p>
<p>Many Hondurans believe Hernández <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-honduran-government-is-trying-to-steal-an-election/">stole the November 2017 elections</a>. The vote count was suspended in the middle of the night as Hernández was running behind, and when the polls opened in the morning, he <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-honduran-government-is-trying-to-steal-an-election/">miraculously emerged as a winner</a>.</p>
<p>Despite widespread allegations of election fraud, the U.S. quickly recognized the result, congratulating <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/22/politics/us-honduras-election-results/index.html">Hernández on his win</a>.</p>
<p>Emboldened by his success, Hernández continued to build up Honduras as the new century’s first narco-state of the Americas.</p>
<p>In 2018, the president’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, a former member of the Honduran Parliament, was arrested in the United States for his association with the Cartel de Sinaloa, the Mexican drug cartel. This entity valued his services so much that <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-honduran-congressman-tony-hern-ndez-sentenced-life-prison-and-ordered-forfeit">they named a particular strain of cocaine after him</a>, stamping the bags as “TH.” Tony Hernández was convicted on four charges in 2019, sentenced to 30 years in prison, and has been in U.S. federal prison ever since. </p>
<p>President Hernández denied any association with the cartel, but the evidence pointed to the contrary. As <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2021/03/18/a-court-case-rocks-the-president-of-honduras">reported in The Economist</a>, in a New York City trial, one accused drug trafficker alleged that Hernández took bribes for “helping cocaine reach the United States.” Another witness testified that the president had taken two bribes in 2013, before being elected; a former cartel leader testified that the president had been paid $250,000 to protect him from being arrested.</p>
<h2>‘Complicit or gullible’</h2>
<p>Given Hernández’s history in Honduras, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/08/juan-orlando-hernndez-honduras-convicted/">repeated claims of U.S. government officials</a> that they simply didn’t know of his crimes ring hollow.</p>
<p>Honduras became a narco-state, in part, because U.S. policymakers looked the other way as it did so. They embraced Hernández because he was ideologically more palatable and subservient to Washington’s wishes compared with his rival, Zelaya. But as the trial verdict in Manhattan makes clear, it was a decision with disastrous consequences.</p>
<p>As one State Department official put it, “Today’s verdict makes all of us who collaborated with (Hernández) <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/08/juan-orlando-hernndez-honduras-convicted/">look either complicit or gullible</a>.” </p>
<p>The latter may be the more charitable assessment. But the truth is more uncomfortable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225991/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I am a member of the Party for Democracy in Chile and and affiliated with the Foro de Political Exterior, a Chilean foreign policy think tank.</span></em></p>Washington looked the other way as coup leaders and drugs cartels conspired to turn Honduras into a center of the cocaine trade.Jorge Heine, Interim Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2077002023-10-16T12:32:54Z2023-10-16T12:32:54ZGangsters are the villains in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ but the biggest thief of Native American wealth was the US government<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552605/original/file-20231006-21-4xdn37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3639%2C2842&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An Osage delegation with President Calvin Coolidge at the White House on Jan. 20, 1924. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/washington-dc-osage-indians-in-washington-regarding-their-news-photo/514689540">Bettman via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Director Martin Scorsese’s new movie, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG0si5bSd6I">Killers of the Flower Moon</a>,” tells the true story of a string of murders on the <a href="https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/">Osage Nation</a>’s land in Oklahoma in the 1920s. Based on David Grann’s <a href="https://www.davidgrann.com/book/killers-of-the-flower-moon/">meticulously researched 2017 book</a>, the movie delves into racial and family dynamics that rocked Oklahoma to the core when oil was discovered on Osage lands.</p>
<p>White settlers targeted members of the Osage Nation to steal their land and the riches beneath it. But from a historical perspective, this crime is just the tip of the iceberg. </p>
<p>From the early 1800s through the 1930s, official U.S. policy displaced thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homes through the policy known as <a href="https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/removal/pdf/related-facts.pdf">Indian removal</a>. And throughout the 20th century, the federal government collected billions of dollars from sales or leases of natural resources like timber, oil and gas on Indian lands, which it was supposed to disburse to the land’s owners. But it <a href="https://narf.org/cases/cobell/">failed to account for these trust funds</a> for decades, let alone pay Indians what they were due.</p>
<p>I am the manager of the University of Arizona’s <a href="https://law.arizona.edu/academics/programs/indigenous-governance-program">Indigenous Governance Program</a> and a <a href="https://naair.arizona.edu/person/torivio-fodder">law professor</a>. My ancestry is Comanche, Kiowa and Cherokee on my father’s side and Taos Pueblo on my mother’s side. From my perspective, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is just one chapter in a much larger story: The U.S. was built on stolen lands and wealth.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553328/original/file-20231011-15-91wp92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Tribal members, some in traditional garb, on a stage" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553328/original/file-20231011-15-91wp92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553328/original/file-20231011-15-91wp92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553328/original/file-20231011-15-91wp92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553328/original/file-20231011-15-91wp92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553328/original/file-20231011-15-91wp92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553328/original/file-20231011-15-91wp92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553328/original/file-20231011-15-91wp92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Osage Nation attend the premiere of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ on Sept. 27, 2023, in New York City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/julie-okeefe-addie-roanhorse-osage-nation-princess-lawren-news-photo/1705095795">Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Westward expansion and land theft</h2>
<p>In the standard telling, the American West was populated by industrious settlers who eked out livings from the ground, formed cities and, in time, created states. In fact, hundreds of Native nations already lived on those lands, each with their own unique forms of government, culture and language.</p>
<p>In the early 1800s, eastern cities were growing and dense urban centers were becoming unwieldy. Indian lands in the west were an alluring target – but westward expansion ran up against what would become known was “the Indian problem.” This <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/trail-of-tears">widely used phrase</a> reflected a belief that the U.S. had a God-given mandate to settle North America, and Indians stood in the way.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/if-BOZgWZPE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In the early 1800s, treaty-making between the U.S. and Indian nations shifted from a cooperative process into a tool for forcibly removing tribes from their lands.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Starting in the 1830s, Congress pressured Indian tribes in the east to sign treaties that required the tribes to <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/indian-removal-act/">move to reservations in the west</a>. This took place over the objections of public figures such as <a href="https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/removal/pdf/related-facts.pdf">Tennessee frontiersman and congressman Davy Crockett</a>, humanitarian organizations and, of course, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/fosm/learn/historyculture/storiestrailoftears.htm">the tribes themselves</a>. </p>
<p>Forced removal touched every tribe east of the Mississippi River and several tribes to the west of it. In total, <a href="https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/removal/pdf/lesson-0-full.pdf">about 100,000 American Indians were removed</a> from their eastern homelands to western reservations. </p>
<p>But the most pernicious land grab was yet to come.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing tribes displaced from the eastern U.S." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eastern Native American tribes that were forced to move west starting in the 1830s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/removal/img/Removal-MAP-20170124.jpg">Smithsonian</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The General Allotment Act</h2>
<p>Even after Indians were corralled on reservations, settlers pushed for more access to western lands. In 1871, Congress formally ended the policy of treaty-making with Indians. Then, in 1887, it passed the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/dawes-act">General Allotment Act</a>, also known as the Dawes Act. With this law, U.S. policy toward Indians shifted from separation to assimilation – forcibly integrating Indians into the national population.</p>
<p>This required transitioning tribal structures of communal land ownership under a reservation system to a private property model that broke up reservations altogether. The General Allotment Act was designed to divvy up reservation lands into allotments for individual Indians and open any unallotted lands, which were deemed surplus, <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/dawes-act#">to non-Indian settlement</a>. Lands could be allotted only to male heads of households. </p>
<p>Under the original statute, the U.S. government held Indian allotments, which measured roughly 160 acres per person, in trust for 25 years before each Indian allottee could receive clear title. During this period, Indian allottees were expected to <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=fac_pub">embrace agriculture, convert to Christianity and assume U.S. citizenship</a>. </p>
<p>In 1906, Congress amended the law to allow the secretary of the interior to issue land titles whenever an Indian allottee was deemed capable of managing his affairs. Once this happened, the allotment was subject to taxation and could immediately be sold.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tHdSZnoDREE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A 2021 study estimated that Native people in the U.S. have lost almost 99% of the lands they occupied before 1800.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Legal cultural genocide</h2>
<p>Indian allottees often had little concept of farming and even less ability to manage their newly acquired lands.</p>
<p>Even after being confined to western reservations, many tribes had maintained their traditional governance structures and tried to preserve their cultural and religious practices, including communal ownership of property. When the U.S. government imposed a foreign system of ownership and management on them, many Indian landowners simply sold their lands to non-Indian buyers, or found themselves subject to taxes that they were unable to pay.</p>
<p>In total, allotment <a href="https://iltf.org/land-issues/history/">removed 90 million acres of land</a> from Indian control before the policy ended in the mid-1930s. This led to the destruction of Indian culture; loss of language as the federal government <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/51.21-22/indigenous-affairs-the-u-s-has-spent-more-money-erasing-native-languages-than-saving-them">implemented its boarding school policy</a>; and imposition of a myriad of regulations, as shown in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” that affected inheritance, ownership and title disputes when an allottee passed away. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Antique map with oil production tracts marked" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1917 map of oil leases on the Osage Reservation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/map-of-osage-indian-reservation-gas-and-oil-leases-1917-news-photo/1371414745">HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A measure of justice</h2>
<p>Today, <a href="https://revenuedata.doi.gov/how-revenue-works/native-american-ownership-governance/">about 56 million acres</a> remain under Indian control. The federal government owns title to the lands, but holds them in trust for Indian tribes and individuals.</p>
<p>These lands contain many valuable resources, including oil, gas, timber and minerals. But rather than acting as a steward of Indian interests in these resources, the U.S. government has repeatedly failed in its trust obligations.</p>
<p>As required under the General Allotment Act, money earned from oil and gas exploration, mining and other activities on allotted Indian lands was placed in individual accounts for the benefit of Indian allottees. But for over a century, rather than making payments to Indian landowners, the government routinely mismanaged those funds, failed to provide a court-ordered accounting of them and <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2318591">systematically destroyed disbursement records</a>. </p>
<p>In 1996, Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, filed a class action lawsuit seeking to force the government to provide a historic accounting of these funds and fix its failed system for managing them. After 16 years of litigation, the suit was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/us/elouise-cobell-65-dies-sued-us-over-indian-trust-funds.html">settled in 2009 for roughly US$3.4 billion</a>. </p>
<p>The settlement provided $1.4 billion for direct payments of $1,000 to each member of the class, and $1.9 billion to consolidate complex ownership interests that had accrued as land was handed down through multiple generations, making it <a href="https://www.doi.gov/ocl/hearings/111/CobellvsSalazar_121709">hard to track allottees and develop the land</a>. </p>
<p>“We all know that the settlement is inadequate, but we must also find a way to heal the wounds and bring some measure of restitution,” said Jefferson Keel, president of the National Congress of American Indians, as the organization <a href="https://www.ncai.org/news/articles/2010/06/23/ncai-passes-resolution-to-support-immediate-passage-of-the-cobell-settlement-legislation">passed a resolution in 2010</a> endorsing the settlement.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman and man shake hands in a crowded hearing room." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elouise Cobell shakes hands with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at a Senate hearing on the $3.4 billion Cobell v. Salazar settlement. Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, led the suit against the federal government for mismanaging revenues derived from land held in trust for Indian tribes and individuals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/elouise-cobell-shakes-hands-with-interior-secretary-ken-news-photo/94711236">Mark Wilson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who are the wolves?</h2>
<p>“Killers of the Flower Moon” offers a snapshot of American Indian land theft, but the full history is much broader. In one scene from the movie, Ernest Burkhart – an uneducated white man, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who married an Osage woman and <a href="https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OS005">participated in the Osage murders</a> – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG0si5bSd6I&t=4s">reads haltingly from a child’s picture book</a>.</p>
<p>“There are many, so many, hungry wolves,” he reads. “Can you find the wolves in this picture?” It’s clear from the movie that the town’s citizens are the wolves. But the biggest wolf of all is the federal government itself – and Uncle Sam is nowhere to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207700/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Torivio Fodder is an enrolled member of the Taos Pueblo, and of Comanche, Kiowa and Cherokee descent.</span></em></p>The Osage murders of the 1920s are just one episode in nearly two centuries of stealing land and resources from Native Americans. Much of this theft was guided and sanctioned by federal law.Torivio Fodder, Indigenous Governance Program Manager and Professor of Practice, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2108062023-08-03T02:45:21Z2023-08-03T02:45:21ZA rocky diplomatic road: Julian Assange’s hopes of avoiding extradition take a blow as US pushes back<p>WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s hopes of avoiding extradition to the United States, where he’s charged with espionage and computer misuse offences, have taken a blow.</p>
<p>US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, asked on Saturday about the Australian government’s request that the US end the prosecution, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-29/ausmin-us-talks-penny-wong-antony-blinken-missiles-marles/102664976">said</a> Assange had been “charged with very serious criminal conduct […] [which] risked very serious harm to our national security”.</p>
<p>He also asked that Australians see the US perspective on the case.</p>
<p>These statements will disappoint Assange’s supporters. Previously, the US hadn’t responded directly to the Australian government’s statements. The Albanese government has repeatedly said it believes the process for prosecuting Assange has gone on too long and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/julian-assange-case-has-dragged-too-long-australias-wong-says-2023-07-29/">should be brought to a conclusion</a>.</p>
<p>From a diplomatic perspective, moving from silence or ambiguity to clearer opposition to the Australian government’s position suggests the US may have decided to prosecute Assange despite Australia’s objections. </p>
<p>However, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wikileaks-founder-assange-prosecution-dfcd2e2ef3047b9ffbdfad1c1ff303db">said</a> that position hadn’t changed, and that Secretary Blinken had merely said in public what had been said in private. He regards the diplomatic process as ongoing – though none can doubt it’s now more challenging.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1685914681184235520"}"></div></p>
<h2>How’d we get here?</h2>
<p>The UK home secretary ordered Assange’s extradition to the US in 2022. Assange’s legal challenge to that order was rejected and is currently under appeal. In parallel, Assange has challenged the order before the European Court of Human Rights.</p>
<p>However, his best chance for freedom is for the US to withdraw the prosecution, or to pardon him. </p>
<p>Under former president Barack Obama, the US declined to prosecute Assange because his case could open the door to prosecution of journalists for espionage. The Trump administration issued an indictment against Assange in 2019, and the Biden administration has continued the extradition process.</p>
<p>Australians detained in foreign countries <a href="https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/consular-services/resources/consular-state-of-play/consular-state-of-play-2021-22">can access support at the nearest Australian embassy</a> and have the right to communicate with Australian consular officials. At times Assange has rejected assistance, but he has had visits from Australian officials in the UK – including, unusually, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/apr/05/australian-high-commissioner-visits-julian-assange-in-uk-prison">High Commissioner Stephen Smith</a> - this year.</p>
<p>Some situations are politically sensitive. Governments deal with those cases directly, and discussions aren’t made public.</p>
<p>The question is whether the US making its position on Assange public indicates it won’t shift that position, meaning further Australian discussions would be pointless.</p>
<p>Assange has enjoyed growing support from Australian parliamentarians. A group of MPs met with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/may/09/julian-assange-australian-mps-urge-us-ambassador-to-end-extradition-bid">US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy in May</a> this year. </p>
<p>But the uncompromising American position on pursuing prosecution is no surprise. The US has been resolute about prosecuting foreign nationals even when allies have objected.</p>
<p>In 1999, <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/case/104">Germany took the US to the International Court of Justice</a> because of its failure to grant German diplomats access to two German nationals accused of capital murder. Although the court found in Germany’s favour, the US still <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaGrand_case">prosecuted and executed the brothers</a>.</p>
<h2>What if the government’s efforts fail?</h2>
<p>Australia’s diplomatic efforts in other cases have produced successful outcomes. It has been effective recently in stopping the prosecution or extradition of persons under its protection. In 2022, Australian pressure led to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/18/sean-turnell-reunited-with-wife-in-australia-after-two-years-in-myanmar-prison">the return of Professor Sean Turnell</a> from Myanmar, where he had been charged with national security offences.</p>
<p>In 2019, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jan/10/marise-payne-lobbies-thailand-to-release-refugee-footballer-hakeem-al-araibi">direct engagement by then Foreign Minister Marise Payne</a> with Thailand prevented the extradition of Hakeem Al-Araibi, a refugee and Australian permanent resident, to Bahrain.</p>
<p>Australia, working with the UK, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-55077744">secured the release of British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert</a> from Iran in November 2020. This was a more challenging diplomatic situation because of the less friendly relations between Iran and both the UK and Australia. </p>
<p>The US seems to resist Australian pressure more often than smaller states do. Assange’s supporters <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/20/change-of-government-would-present-great-opportunity-in-fight-to-free-julian-assange-his-father-says">hoped a direct request by Australia</a>, a close American ally, would lead to his release.</p>
<p>While the US has resisted Australia’s request, it hasn’t yet formally closed the door. Until Assange is extradited, it’s always possible Australia’s persuasion could yet succeed. </p>
<p>If it fails, Australia would have few options. It could apply symbolic diplomatic measures, such as calling in the American ambassador or bringing the Australian ambassador home from the US for consultations.</p>
<p>These acts would demonstrate concern, but they remain in the sphere of diplomacy.</p>
<p>Indeed protecting Australian nationals in foreign countries is less about the law than successful diplomatic practice.</p>
<p>While Albanese has said Australia will continue to make representations concerning Assange, the diplomatic road has become rockier.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210806/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Holly Cullen is a volunteer for the Australian Labor Party.</span></em></p>Moving from ambiguity to clearer opposition to the Australian government’s position suggests the US may have decided to prosecute Assange despite Australian objections.Holly Cullen, Adjunct professor, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2075912023-06-13T12:56:21Z2023-06-13T12:56:21ZSilvio Berlusconi had a complex relationship with US presidents: Friend to one, shunned by another<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531504/original/file-20230613-15-3b421j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C122%2C2048%2C1321&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Things looking up for the Bush-Berlusconi relationship.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-george-w-bush-and-italian-prime-minister-silvio-news-photo/119806434?adppopup=true">Philippe Desmazes/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the administration of Geroge W. Bush needed an ally to help sell its <a href="https://www.cfr.org/timeline/iraq-war">proposed invasion of Iraq</a> to a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-crisis-in-the-alliance/">skeptical European audience</a>, Silvio Berlusconi stepped forward.</p>
<p>It wasn’t that the Italian prime minister was particularly concerned over the threat of Saddam Hussein’s <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna7634313">imagined</a> <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-crisis-in-the-alliance/">weapons of mass destruction</a> to his country, or the region – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/oct/31/italy.usa">he wasn’t</a>. But it was a chance for the former businessman to burnish his credentials as an international statesman and to draw the U.S. closer into Italy’s orbit.</p>
<p>Indeed, strengthening U.S.-Italian relations was the key driver of Berlusconi’s foreign policy, as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BEzB1hYAAAAJ&hl=en">I learned</a> while interviewing Berlusconi government officials for my 2011 book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Allies-War-Kosovo-Afghanistan/dp/0230614825">America’s Allies and War</a>.” The fact that Berlusconi couldn’t repeat the trick some years later when Barack Obama came to power was in large part entirely of his own making – he reportedly never recovered in the eyes of Obama from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/06/italy-barackobama">comments widely seen as racist</a>. Eventually, Berlusconi would again fall in line with Washington’s interventionist foreign policy – <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2016/04/12/everyone-says-the-libya-intervention-was-a-failure-theyre-wrong/">this time in Libya</a> – but by then the damage had been done. Fair to say, the legacy in regards to U.S.-Italian relationship left by Berlusconi – who <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/former-italian-pm-silvio-berlusconi-has-died-italian-media-2023-06-12/">died on June 12, 2023,</a> at 86 – is mixed, a tale of two halves.</p>
<h2>A friend in need</h2>
<p>Italy never had the “<a href="https://www.georgewbushlibrary.gov/research/topic-guides/us-uk-special-relationship">special relationship</a>” that the U.K still claims to possess in regards to Washington. Nor did it have the clout of post-war France and Germany, whose economies were more central to the well-being of the European Union. Moreover, Italy’s political instability – it is currently on its <a href="https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/10/21/italy-is-set-for-its-68th-government-in-76-years-why-such-a-high-turnover">69th goverment since 1945</a> at a rate of one every 13 months or so – makes it more difficult to establish lasting bilateral political relationships.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, by the time Berlusconi came to power for a second time in 2001 – following a one-year stint as prime minister between 1994 and 1995 – Italy had gone some way to ingratiating itself with successive U.S. administrations. In 1990, Italy <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-64980565">supported President George H.W. Bush’s military operation</a> in the Persian Gulf, joining a coalition of 39 countries opposing Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait and sending fighter jets to support the subsequent aerial bombing campaign.</p>
<p>Then in 1999, Italian jets participated in airstrikes and Italian bases served as the main launching site for U.S. and NATO jets during the alliance’s <a href="https://www.nato.int/kosovo/">military operations in Kosovo</a>.</p>
<p>But the war in Iraq was different. By fall of 2002, George W. Bush had <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/04/this-day-in-politics-sept-4-2002-805725">made it clear</a> that he intended to invade. But by then, the U.S. had lost some of the near-unanimous international support that it was afforded after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. </p>
<p>Europe was divided. The public was <a href="https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/185298">very much against invasion</a>. But governments had to weigh political consequences at home, with the benefits of supporting the world’s largest economy.</p>
<p>Outside of the U.K, Berlusconi was Bush’s biggest European ally. Shrugging off <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/10/world/threats-and-responses-italy-florence-wary-as-opponents-of-war-stage-a-huge-march.html">massive street protests in Italian cities</a>, the opposition of many within the Italian parliament and public opinion that put support for the invasion <a href="https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_140583_smxx.pdf">as low as 22%</a>, Berlusconi went to bat for Bush’s war. </p>
<p>Unlike the U.K. – and to a lesser extent Australia and Poland – Italy did not directly participate in the invasion itself. But by April of 2003, Italy agreed to <a href="https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/italy-and-the-new-iraq-the-many-dimensions-of-a-successful-partnership-121530">send a contingent of 3,000 troops</a> to help stabilize Iraq. Explaining his rationale to the New York Times in 2003, Berlusconi <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/05/world/berlusconi-urges-support-for-us-on-iraq.html">said it was “absolutely unthinkable</a>” to decline Bush’s request for an Italian military presence given how the U.S. had come to Europe’s aid after World War II.</p>
<p>Even sending that peace mission was controversial in Italy, especially after 17 Italian soldiers <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/12/international/middleeast/at-least-26-killed-in-a-bombing-of-an-italian.html">were killed in a November 2003 attack</a>. in Iraq. Indeed, with elections around the corner, in 2005 Berlosconi announced <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna7337476">Italian troops would withdraw</a> from the war-torn country.</p>
<h2>Surplus to US requirements</h2>
<p>Sticking his neck out for Bush’s war won Berlusconi friends in Washington. During the Bush’s administration, the Italian prime minister <a href="https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/visits/italy">visited the U.S. on 11 occasions</a> and was invited to <a href="https://www.upi.com/News_Photos/view/upi/4da5ea3a0de9b336906cb83e3c71663a/ITALIAN-PRIME-MINISTER-BERLUSCONI-ADDRESSES-JOINT-SESSION-OF-CONGRESS/">address both houses of Congress</a> – a rarity for overseas leaders.</p>
<p>The deployment of Italian troops both in Iraq and also Afghanistan – where some 4,000 Italians were sent <a href="https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2021/Davidson_AlliesCostsofWar_Final.pdf">and 48 died</a> – helped stabilize the U.S.-Italian ties.</p>
<p>It wasn’t a one-way relationship. In return for military support, Berlusconi benefited from his elevated role in trans-Atlantic relations, being able to sell himself as a major international player at home. And remaining friendly with the world’s biggest economy is also prudent for a country <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/20/business/italy-economy.html">prone to economic instability</a>.</p>
<p>So while he was ejected from office in Italy in 2006, he departed with a legacy of building up Italy’s standing with leaders in the U.S.</p>
<p>And then came the Obama years. Berlusconi <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/15/italy1">returned to power in 2008</a>, the same year that Obama was elected to his first term in office. But even before Obama could be sworn in, the Italian prime minister had soured the relationship, referring to the U.S. president elect as “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/06/italy-barackobama">young, handsome and tanned</a>.”</p>
<p>It may have been meant as a compliment, but it certainly came across as at best off-key, at worst racist.</p>
<p>Such eyebrow-raising remarks were, of course, not uncommon for Berlusconi, who gained a reputation for <a href="https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/silvio-berlusconis-most-controversial-distasteful-101700715.html">saying at times outrageous things</a>. But the incident didn’t bode well for bilateral relations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A glum looking man looks off to the side next to a similarly downcast man shuffling papers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531505/original/file-20230613-29-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531505/original/file-20230613-29-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531505/original/file-20230613-29-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531505/original/file-20230613-29-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531505/original/file-20230613-29-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531505/original/file-20230613-29-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531505/original/file-20230613-29-awxc1v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-barack-obama-meets-with-italian-prime-minister-news-photo/88501434?adppopup=true">Win McNamee/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Conversations I have had with officials in Obama’s White House and State Department and others in Washington suggest that it wasn’t primarily about Berlusconi’s comments; there was a feeling that by the late 2000s he wasn’t reliable and had little to offer.</p>
<p>There was, however, one last U.S.-led foreign intervention that the aging Italian prime minister could play a role in. In 2011 a coalition of NATO countries were entrusted to implement a <a href="https://press.un.org/en/2011/sc10200.doc.htm">U.N.-sanctioned no-fly zone over Libya</a>, amid claims of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/18/muammar-gaddafi-war-crimes-files">civilian attacks by Moammar Gaddafi’s regime</a>. Berlusconi – mindful of Italy receiving a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-libya/gaddafi-hails-italy-for-overcoming-colonial-past-idUSTRE5593OO20090610">quarter of its oil from Libya</a> and reliant on the country to implement a deal aimed at preventing African immigrants arriving on Italian shores – resisted.</p>
<p>But after Obama threw his wholesale support behind NATO’s intervention, Berlusconi acquiesced and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13188951">joined Italy’s allies in the military coalition</a>. To Berlusconi, not being aligned with the U.S. was one thing; opposing Washington’s wishes entirely was a step too far.</p>
<h2>A precursor of the populist premier</h2>
<p>Much comment has been made over the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/04/berlusconi-italy-trump-president/587014/">similarities between Berlusconi and another U.S. president</a>: Donald J. Trump. No doubt, the pair share commonalities – businessmen whose forays into politics were marked by right-wing populism and many, many scandals.</p>
<p>But Berlusconi’s legacy as an Italian leader on trans-Atlantic relations is best seen through the lens of Trump’s two predecessors. And it is a very mixed legacy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Davidson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The former Italian prime minister died on June 12, 2023, at the age of 86. Throughout his terms in office he cultivated closer ties with the US – with mixed results.Jason Davidson, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, University of Mary WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1852812022-07-01T01:46:35Z2022-07-01T01:46:35ZThe Supreme Court has curtailed EPA’s power to regulate carbon pollution – and sent a warning to other regulators<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471914/original/file-20220630-18-1b6yy0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C0%2C4230%2C2822&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Smokestacks at the coal-fired Mountaineer power plant in New Haven, West Virginia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-smoke-stacks-at-american-electric-powers-mountaineer-news-photo/609483172">Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a highly anticipated but not unexpected 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled on June 30, 2022, that the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1530_n758.pdf">exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s authority</a> under the Clean Air Act. </p>
<p>The ruling doesn’t take away the EPA’s power to regulate carbon emissions from power plants, but it makes federal action harder by requiring the agency to show that Congress has charged it to act – in an area where <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/10/27/1047583610/once-again-the-u-s-has-failed-to-take-sweeping-climate-action-heres-why">Congress has consistently failed to act</a>.</p>
<p>The Clean Power Plan, the policy at the heart of the ruling, never took effect because the court blocked it in 2016, and the EPA now plans to develop a new policy instead. Nonetheless, the court went out of its way to strike it down in this case and reject the agency’s interpretation of what the Clean Air Act permitted. </p>
<p>Having said what the EPA cannot do, the court gave no guidance on what the agency can do about this urgent problem. Beyond climate policy, the ruling poses serious questions about how the court will view other regulatory programs. </p>
<h2>Remaking the electricity sector</h2>
<p>The Clean Power Plan would have set targets for each state to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electric power plants. Utilities could <a href="https://archive.epa.gov/epa/cleanpowerplan/fact-sheet-overview-clean-power-plan.html">meet these targets</a> by improving efficiency at existing coal-fired power plants and by “generation shifting” – producing more power from natural gas and renewable sources like wind and solar.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">In a 2014 video, President Barack Obama describes his administration’s plans to regulate carbon pollution from the energy sector.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In the EPA’s view, this sectorwide shift to cleaner sources represented the “best system of emission reduction,” a statutory term in the 1970 Clean Air Act. Coal companies and Republican-led states contended that the changes the agency envisioned exceeded its authority.</p>
<p>Chief Justice John Roberts framed the issue as a “major question,” a doctrine that the court <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10745">has invoked in only a handful of cases</a>. It holds that agencies may not regulate on questions of “vast economic or political significance” <a href="https://opencasebook.org/casebooks/1045-public-institutions-administrative-law-cases-materials/resources/4.2.4.1-major-questions-doctrine/">without clear directions from Congress</a>.</p>
<p>In the most prominent example, in 2000 the court invalidated the Food and Drug Administration’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/98-1152.ZO.html">attempt to regulate tobacco</a>. The ruling held that this had never been part of the agency’s mission, no law gave the FDA clear authority over tobacco, and Congress had not directed the FDA to take such action. </p>
<p>The major question doctrine builds on a more established but increasingly disfavored principle of administrative law, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/chevron_deference">Chevron deference</a>, which requires courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statute. In my view, however, the Supreme Court is using the major question doctrine to take on authority to decide what Congress meant, without regard to the agency’s expert views or policy judgments.</p>
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<h2>A rebuke to EPA</h2>
<p>In one sense, the majority opinion is fairly narrow. As Roberts writes: “[T]he only interpretive question before us, and the only one we answer, is … whether the ‘best system of emission reduction’ identified by EPA
in the Clean Power Plan was within the authority” of section 111 (d) of the Clean Air Act. </p>
<p>The majority’s answer was no.</p>
<p>Citing its ruling in a <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2013/12-1146">2014 air pollution case</a>, the court said that the EPA’s interpretation of “best system of emission reduction” amounted to a “claim to discover in a long-extant statute an unheralded power” representing a “transformative expansion in its regulatory authority.” Essentially, the majority found that the EPA had proposed a sweeping national makeover of the electric power industry.</p>
<p>Roberts characterized section 111 (d) as a “backwater” provision of the Clean Air Act that had never been used to adopt a rule as broad and with such “vast economic and political consequences” as the Clean Power Plan.</p>
<p>Although West Virginia and the others who sued argued that the EPA had no authority to regulate emissions “beyond the fenceline” of individual plants, the Court did not constrain the agency that tightly. Roberts also noted that the EPA’s authority was not limited to plant-specific technological controls. This suggests that the court is leaving the door open for some regulation beyond the fenceline.</p>
<p>In a lengthy and acerbic dissent, Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, argued that the text, context, history and purpose of the Clean Air Act, as well as common sense and the scientific imperative of dealing with climate change, supported the EPA’s position. “The Court appoints itself – instead of Congress or the expert agency – the decisionmaker on climate policy. I cannot think of many things more frightening,” Kagan concluded.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471957/original/file-20220630-26-b8d12a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Biden walks in front of a large screen reading 'COP 26'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471957/original/file-20220630-26-b8d12a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471957/original/file-20220630-26-b8d12a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471957/original/file-20220630-26-b8d12a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471957/original/file-20220630-26-b8d12a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471957/original/file-20220630-26-b8d12a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471957/original/file-20220630-26-b8d12a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471957/original/file-20220630-26-b8d12a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">President Joe Biden arrives at the United Nations Climate Summit in 2021. Biden has set a 2030 target for eliminating carbon emissions from the U.S. electric power sector.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-joe-biden-arrives-for-the-cop26-un-climate-summit-news-photo/1236271706">Adrian Dennis/Pool/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Putting regulators on notice</h2>
<p>What can the EPA do now? Its options appear limited. The agency can require existing coal-fired plants to operate more efficiently, but that would extend the plants’ useful lives, with negative effects on nearby communities from <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-other-reason-to-shift-away-from-coal-air-pollution-that-kills-thousands-every-year-78874">pollutants that the plants emit</a>. </p>
<p>Theoretically, the EPA could require every coal-fired power plant to install carbon capture and storage technology. This is the kind of technological control that the agency has long required for air pollution sources. But the costs, especially for retrofitting existing plants, are prohibitive, and utilities would surely challenge the technology as not “adequately demonstrated,” as required by section 111 (d). </p>
<p>Another option would be to require retrofitting coal plants to allow <a href="https://www.rff.org/publications/issue-briefs/reducing-coal-plant-emissions-by-cofiring-with-natural-gas/">co-firing with natural gas</a> – burning a mix of these fuels, as <a href="https://www.rff.org/publications/issue-briefs/reducing-coal-plant-emissions-by-cofiring-with-natural-gas/">some plants already do</a>. But relying on natural gas brings its own problems, including <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/major-us-cities-are-leaking-methane-twice-rate-previously-believed">methane leaks from wells and pipelines</a>. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and a <a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/methane-emissions-are-driving-climate-change-heres-how-reduce-them">major driver of short-term climate warming</a>.</p>
<p>Market conditions are shifting electricity production away from coal and toward cleaner, more cost-effective sources like wind and solar. Indeed, the Clean Power Plan’s original goal of reducing the electric power sector’s carbon emissions by <a href="https://archive.epa.gov/epa/cleanpowerplan/fact-sheet-overview-clean-power-plan.html#:%7E:text=When%20the%20Clean%20Power%20Plan,other%20harmful%20air%20pollution%2C%20too.">32% below 2005 levels by 2030</a> has <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-electric-power-sector-is-halfway-to-zero-carbon-emissions-159190">already been exceeded</a>. But this transition is not moving as quickly as <a href="https://theconversation.com/transformational-change-is-coming-to-how-people-live-on-earth-un-climate-adaptation-report-warns-which-path-will-humanity-choose-177604">climate science suggests is necessary</a> to avoid catastrophic impacts from warming. </p>
<p><iframe id="HNrNh" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/HNrNh/6/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Broader impacts</h2>
<p>Beyond climate policy, I expect this ruling to affect how the EPA and other regulatory agencies interpret laws that have been on the books for many years. Regulators may shy away from advancing policies that the court could view as marked departures from past interpretations and actions with big economic and political consequences. </p>
<p>For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission recently proposed a new rule to require publicly traded companies to <a href="https://theconversation.com/sec-proposes-far-reaching-climate-disclosure-rules-for-companies-heres-where-the-rules-may-be-vulnerable-to-legal-challenges-179534">provide more robust disclosure</a> of the financial risks that climate change poses to their balance sheets. The agency is also moving to more vigorously <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/walvanlierop/2022/06/02/the-sec-is-fed-up-with-esg-greenwashing/?sh=4400f9d2774c">police greenwashing</a> by companies claiming to be committed to a net-zero carbon future.</p>
<p>In my view, it is clear that the U.S. has entered a new era of administrative law, with an activist court asserting its power to curtail what it perceives as the excesses of regulatory agencies – and not always waiting for those agencies to complete their work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185281/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Parenteau does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court held that an Obama administration plan to regulate carbon emissions from power plants exceeded the power that Congress gave to the Environmental Protection Agency.Patrick Parenteau, Professor of Law, Vermont Law & Graduate SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1830532022-06-15T12:25:51Z2022-06-15T12:25:51ZLegal fights persist over policies that require teachers to refer to trans students by their chosen pronouns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468326/original/file-20220611-25540-w54pq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C51%2C5700%2C3737&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trans student rights often hang in the balance.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/multiracial-group-of-students-sitting-at-desk-in-royalty-free-image/1345022868?adppopup=true">Maskot/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Tennessee, a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/transgender-pronoun-bill-advances-tennessees-legislature-rcna2604">proposed law</a> would let public school teachers refuse to call transgender students by the pronouns they use for themselves.</p>
<p>At Shawnee State University – a public university in Ohio – a professor <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/18/us/ohio-professor-transgender-lawsuit-settlement/index.html">got paid US$400,000</a> to settle a lawsuit that he filed against the school after being disciplined for refusing to refer to a trans woman student as “she” or “her.”</p>
<p>In Loudoun County, Virginia, a public school teacher was suspended for objecting to the use of trans students’ pronouns, but the state’s Supreme Court <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249613/teacher-suspended-for-speaking-out-on-transgender-preferred-pronoun-policy-reaches-settlement-with-loudoun-county-virginia-school-board">ordered his reinstatement</a> while the case was pending. As in the Shawnee State professor case, the school district <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249613/teacher-suspended-for-speaking-out-on-transgender-preferred-pronoun-policy-reaches-settlement-with-loudoun-county-virginia-school-board">chose to settle</a>. It also agreed to remove the disciplinary action from the teacher’s file.</p>
<p>As a researcher who focuses on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10474412.2018.1480376">the experiences of trans college students</a>, I see all three cases as part of a disquieting trend: The right of trans students to be free from discrimination is tenuous at best and under <a href="https://adfmedia.org/case/vlaming-v-west-point-school-board">constant legal attack</a>.</p>
<p>In many ways, the legal attacks are coordinated. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group, is <a href="https://www.them.us/story/hate-group-reportedly-behind-2021-anti-trans-bills">behind much of the anti-trans legislation in the U.S.</a> The organization represented the Shawnee State professor and the Virginia schoolteacher in their lawsuits. It is also <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249613/teacher-suspended-for-speaking-out-on-transgender-preferred-pronoun-policy-reaches-settlement-with-loudoun-county-virginia-school-board">backing other teachers in similar lawsuits</a>.</p>
<h2>At greater risk</h2>
<p>For people on the sidelines, legal fights over the rights of trans students may seem like just one of several contemporary cultural battles or polarizing political debates. But for trans students, the right to be respected and recognized the way they see themselves is a matter of quality of life and – in some cases – a matter of life and death.</p>
<p>Research has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2019.0338">consistently shown</a> that trans youths have higher rates of mental health challenges – including depression, anxiety and risk of suicide – than their nontrans peers. This is because of the stress they experience as a result of prejudice and discrimination.</p>
<p>A 2021 survey by the <a href="https://www.thetrevorproject.org/explore/">Trevor Project</a> – a nonprofit organization that conducts suicide prevention and crisis intervention for LGBTQ young people – provides additional insight. It found that if trans and nonbinary youths had been discriminated against in the past year because of their gender identity, they were <a href="https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2021/">twice as likely to attempt suicide</a> as those who did not report discrimination.</p>
<p>The survey also indicated that the more a young person’s pronouns were not respected, the greater the suicide risk.</p>
<p>Thus, regardless of what state or federal law or the courts may say about whether educators must refer to students by the pronouns they use for themselves, there is strong evidence that doing so – or not – can drastically affect students’ mental health.</p>
<h2>Recognition and rights</h2>
<p>At the same time, many K-12 school districts, colleges and universities, states and the federal government do enable trans students to be recognized the way they see themselves.</p>
<p>For example, at the college level, I have found that more than 200 colleges and universities <a href="https://www.campuspride.org/tpc/records/">enable students to indicate their pronouns</a> in the schools’ student information systems. This includes the state university systems in Minnesota, New York and Wisconsin. Students’ pronouns then appear on course rosters and sometimes on other administrative records. At the University of Minnesota, the <a href="https://policy.umn.edu/operations/genderequity">policy states</a> that university members are “expected to use the names, gender identities, and pronouns specified to them by other University members, except as legally required.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468325/original/file-20220611-24154-c038re.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person holds a sign that reads 'Schools Stand with Trans Kids'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468325/original/file-20220611-24154-c038re.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468325/original/file-20220611-24154-c038re.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468325/original/file-20220611-24154-c038re.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468325/original/file-20220611-24154-c038re.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468325/original/file-20220611-24154-c038re.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468325/original/file-20220611-24154-c038re.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468325/original/file-20220611-24154-c038re.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">People hold a rally in Minnesota to support trans kids.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/st-paul-minnesota-march-6-2022-because-the-attacks-against-news-photo/1385207815?adppopup=true">Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>At the state level, <a href="https://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps/safe_school_laws/discrimination">19 states</a> have guidelines for trans inclusion in K-12 public schools. These policies call for trans students to be referred to by the pronouns they use for themselves. For example, the <a href="https://www.doe.mass.edu/sfs/lgbtq/genderidentity.html">Massachusetts policy</a> states that “school personnel should use the student’s chosen name and pronouns appropriate to a student’s gender identity, regardless of the student’s assigned birth sex.” However, none of the policies I have seen actually spells out what will happen if a teacher or professor refuses to respect a trans person’s pronouns.</p>
<h2>Political shifts</h2>
<p>The status of trans student rights is subject to change based on which party is in the White House, controls state legislatures and appoints judges to state and federal courts.</p>
<p>The Alliance Defending Freedom, for instance, is seeking to challenge a <a href="https://townhall.virginia.gov/l/GetFile.cfm?File=C:%5CTownHall%5Cdocroot%5CGuidanceDocs_Proposed%5C201%5CGDoc_DOE_4683_20201208.pdf">Virginia law</a> – passed after Democrats gained control of the Virginia General Assembly in 2020 – that requires state school boards to protect the rights of trans students, including allowing students to “assert a name and gender pronouns that reflect their gender identity.”</p>
<p>The legal status of rights for trans students is constantly changing at the federal level, as shown by how the current and previous two administrations have interpreted <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/sex-discrimination/title-ix-education-amendments/index.html">Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972</a>. This is the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal funding.</p>
<p>The Obama administration considered anti-trans discrimination to fall under the definition of “sex” in Title IX. For that reason, the Obama administration <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201605-title-ix-transgender.pdf">issued guidance</a> in 2016 for schools to protect the rights of trans students. A central provision of this guidance was that “a school must treat students consistent with their gender identity.” This included using the pronouns that students indicate for their identity.</p>
<p>The Trump administration, however, <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201702-title-ix.pdf">rescinded the guidance</a> soon after taking office in 2017. The Trump administration argued that the law’s use of “sex discrimination” was limited to discrimination based on “biological sex,” not gender identity.</p>
<p>Then, at the start of his administration in 2021, President Joe Biden restored the previous understanding of Title IX through an <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/25/2021-01761/preventing-and-combating-discrimination-on-the-basis-of-gender-identity-or-sexual-orientation">executive order</a>. It stated that trans people were covered under the prohibition of sex discrimination in Title IX and other federal laws.</p>
<h2>A matter of equal protection</h2>
<p>The Biden administration rooted its argument on the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/equal_protection">equal protection</a> clause of the Constitution. It also based its position on a <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2019/17-1618">2020 Supreme Court decision</a> that involved anti-LGBT job discrimination.</p>
<p>That Supreme Court ruling is <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf">Bostock v. Clayton County</a>. It held that the ban on “sex discrimination” in federal employment law – known as <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/title-vii-civil-rights-act-1964#:%7E:text=Title%20VII%20prohibits%20employment%20discrimination,religion%2C%20sex%20and%20national%20origin.">Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964</a> – applied to discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.</p>
<p>The Biden administration contends that if “sex discrimination” in one federal law includes anti-LGBT discrimination, then all federal laws with similar language must be interpreted the same way. From this standpoint, discrimination against trans students, which includes not respecting how they identify their gender, is a violation of Title IX. Violations of Title IX could <a href="https://www.knowyourix.org/college-resources/title-ix/#:%7E:text=Under%20Title%20IX%2C%20schools%20are,risk%20losing%20its%20federal%20funding.">lead to a loss of federal funding</a>. However, on July 15, 2022, a federal judge in Tennessee <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/17/us/judge-blocks-biden-lgbt-student-rules.html">temporarily blocked</a> the Department of Education from applying Title IX to trans students until the courts can rule on the matter.</p>
<p>Based on all the political shifts, proposed laws and lawsuits about whether educators must refer to trans students by the pronouns of their choice, it is clear the issue will be a matter of legal controversy for the foreseeable future. A key question is how much harm trans students must endure while society debates whether they have the legal right to be recognized by the pronouns they use for themselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183053/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Genny Beemyn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For trans students, the right to be recognized by the pronouns they use for themselves is under constant legal attack. A researcher who specializes in the trans student experience takes a closer look.Genny Beemyn, Director, Stonewall Center, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1843652022-06-07T12:32:24Z2022-06-07T12:32:24ZChanges are coming to school meals nationwide – an expert in food policy explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466869/original/file-20220602-183-w294c0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C33%2C4477%2C2978&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eating well makes it easier to concentrate on learning.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tyden-brownlee-picks-up-a-free-school-lunch-at-olympic-news-photo/1207638083">Karen Ducey/Stringer via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>For the two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. public schools have been able to provide free meals for all students, including to-go meals in the summer. But on June 30, 2022, <a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-will-stop-serving-free-lunch-to-all-students-a-pandemic-solution-left-out-of-a-new-federal-spending-package-179058">the federal waivers that expanded the school lunch program will expire</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>In May 2022, SciLine interviewed <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fPDErC8AAAAJ&hl=en">Marlene Schwartz</a>, a professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Connecticut and the director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Health, about how these changes will affect children and families and how food pantries can help.</em></p>
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<p><em>The Conversation has collaborated with SciLine to bring you highlights from the discussion, which have been edited for brevity and clarity.</em></p>
<h2>What is the role of school food in children’s overall diet and health?</h2>
<p><strong>Marlene Schwartz</strong>: School food plays an important role, particularly since <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/healthy-hunger-free-kids-act">the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was passed in 2010</a>, improved the National School Lunch Program. About <a href="https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/primer-school_breakfast_program_national_lunch_program/">30 million children a day</a> participate in the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp">National School Lunch Program</a>. </p>
<p>The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act required the USDA to update not just the rules about what was served for the reimbursable lunch, but also the rules for things like snacks and beverages that are sold in vending machines or other places in the school.</p>
<p>Research has shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2019.10.022">the meals served now are better</a>, that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.9517">the meals children are eating are better</a>, and, in fact, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00133">some data suggests</a> that the trajectory of childhood obesity that has been such a concern has been attenuated because of the success of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.</p>
<h2>During the pandemic, the federal government provided waivers to school food programs so they can change their services. What changes have the waivers permitted?</h2>
<p><strong>Marlene Schwartz:</strong> The largest change was allowing for all of the children to receive meals at no cost. That dramatically increased the number of children who had access to school meals.</p>
<p>Another large change that came from the waivers was for the summer meal program. Typically, that program is much smaller, and meals are served at particular sites in a community and children need to be brought there by a parent, and they need to eat the meal on-site. </p>
<p>During COVID-19, the USDA allowed that program to provide meals to-go. Breakfasts, lunches were packaged up and were distributed to the parents of the children, and this increased participation because it allowed parents to access these foods in a way that worked with their own schedules, particularly if they are working parents.</p>
<h2>Assuming the waivers will expire as scheduled on June 30, how are schools going to cope?</h2>
<p><strong>Marlene Schwartz</strong>: It’s hard to know how schools are going to cope, but dropping the waivers will make their jobs much harder.</p>
<p>We are adding the administrative burden of having to go back to collecting information from families to see who qualifies for the meals, and then, in the actual serving of the meals, having to know who’s eligible for reduced or free meals and collecting money from those who pay. Those are things that, over the last couple of years, food service directors have not had to manage, giving them more time to really focus instead on the meals.</p>
<p>It’s also important to recognize that we are still facing <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/01/1077371645/schools-scramble-to-feed-kids-as-supply-chain-issues-persist">supply chain issues</a>. Food service directors often order the food months in advance. When that food doesn’t show up, they really need to scramble to find substitutes. Those problems have increased the burden on them to run the program.</p>
<h2>What are the effects of making school meals free for all students?</h2>
<p><strong>Marlene Schwartz</strong>: The findings are pretty clear that when students have universal free meals, <a href="http://doi.org/10.3390/nu13030911">participation in school meals programs goes up</a>, so more children eat them. And research shows that the meals that are provided through the school meal program are of higher nutritional quality than the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.5262">meals that children bring from home or get from other places</a>.</p>
<p>Some studies have found that when you provide universal free meals, you have <a href="http://doi.org/10.3390/nu13030911">improvements in academic performance,</a> particularly for students who are at higher risk.</p>
<p>There is also evidence in <a href="http://doi.org/10.3390/nu13030911">some studies</a> that universal free school meals help improve family food insecurity rates. When a family knows that their child can get breakfast and lunch every day at school, it really allows them to save their food budget to purchase other foods for the house. And that helps them be more food-secure.</p>
<h2>What is the role of food banks and pantries in shaping the diet and health of vulnerable children and families?</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466870/original/file-20220602-15259-yyascj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A long line of cars wraps around a parking lot" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466870/original/file-20220602-15259-yyascj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466870/original/file-20220602-15259-yyascj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466870/original/file-20220602-15259-yyascj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466870/original/file-20220602-15259-yyascj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466870/original/file-20220602-15259-yyascj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466870/original/file-20220602-15259-yyascj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466870/original/file-20220602-15259-yyascj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">There are over 200 food banks across the country that distribute food to thousands of food pantries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/residents-line-up-in-their-cars-at-a-food-distribution-site-news-photo/1229725297">Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p><strong>Marlene Schwartz</strong>: Within the charitable food system, there’s been a real shift in thinking that has been a change from giving away as many pounds of food as possible to really looking at the nutritional quality of those pounds. That’s thanks in part to <a href="https://www.feedingamerica.org/">Feeding America</a>, which is a national network of food banks, and <a href="https://www.ahealthieramerica.org/">Partnership for a Healthier America</a>, which is part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative. Both of them are working with food banks around the country to really help them track the nutritional quality of their food and set goals for themselves in terms of maximizing the most nutritious foods they are able to distribute.</p>
<h2>What do you wish people knew about the current state of school foods?</h2>
<p><strong>Marlene Schwartz</strong>: One thing that I would really like people to acknowledge is the improvements that have occurred in the school meal program after the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. One of the challenges that I’ve noticed in my research is that sometimes the menu that you get from your school says things like chicken nuggets, pizza, tacos, hamburger, and a parent might think that doesn’t sound healthy. </p>
<p>What they don’t know is that those chicken nuggets are baked, not fried, and probably are whole grain breadcrumbs. The pizza probably has a whole grain crust, lower-fat cheese and vegetables on it. There’s this tension between wanting to create school menus that will be appealing to children and also communicate the nutrition information to parents. And that’s not the easiest thing to do.</p>
<p><em>SciLine is a free service based at the nonprofit American Association for the Advancement of Science that helps journalists include scientific evidence and experts in their news stories.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184365/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marlene B. Schwartz has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health, United States Department of Agriculture, Connecticut State Department of Education, Partnership for a Healthier America, Feeding America, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Horizon Foundation. </span></em></p>An expert on food policy explains how the end of COVID-19 waivers will impact children’s access to food, as well as the importance of food banks and pantries.Marlene B. Schwartz, Director, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health and Professor, Human Development and Family Sciences, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1714752022-02-17T13:20:29Z2022-02-17T13:20:29ZThe Supreme Court could hamstring federal agencies’ regulatory power in a high-profile air pollution case<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446362/original/file-20220214-21-129d4ri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C5277%2C3396&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coal piles outside of PacifiCorp's Hunter power plant in Castle Dale, Utah.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pacificorps-hunter-coal-fired-power-pant-releases-steam-as-news-photo/1182367634">George Frey, AFP, via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Feb. 28, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/west-virginia-v-environmental-protection-agency/">West Virginia v. EPA</a>, a case that centers on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change. How the court decides the case could have broad ramifications, not just for climate change but for federal regulation in many areas.</p>
<p>This case stems from actions over the past decade to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, a centerpiece of U.S. climate change policy. In 2016, the Supreme Court blocked the Obama administration’s <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-supreme-court-blocks-obama-s-clean-power-plan/">Clean Power Plan</a>, which was designed to reduce these emissions. The Trump administration repealed the Clean Power Plan and replaced it with the far less stringent <a href="https://www.epa.gov/stationary-sources-air-pollution/proposal-affordable-clean-energy-ace-rule">Affordable Clean Energy Rule</a>. Various parties challenged that measure, and a <a href="https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/6356486C5963F49185258662005677F6/$file/19-1140.correctedopinion.pdf">federal court invalidated it</a> a day before Trump left office. </p>
<p>The EPA now says that it has no intention to proceed with either of these rules, and plans to issue an <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/epa-forges-ahead-on-power-plant-rule-amid-legal-showdown/">entirely new set of regulations</a>. Under such circumstances, courts usually wait for agencies to finalize their position before stepping in. This allows agencies to evaluate the evidence, apply their expertise and exercise their policymaking discretion. It also allows courts to consider a concrete rule with practical consequences.</p>
<p>From my work as an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=njpqfiQAAAAJ">environmental law scholar</a>, the Supreme Court’s decision to hear this case is surprising, since it addresses regulations the Biden administration doesn’t plan to implement. It reflects a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/25/supreme-court-regulations-biden-421934">keen interest on the part of the court’s conservative majority</a> in the government’s power to regulate – an issue with impacts that extend far beyond air pollution. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">On Oct. 14, 2020, then-Sen. Kamala Harris questions Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett about her views on climate change.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>How much latitude does the EPA have?</h2>
<p>The court granted petitions from coal companies and Republican-led states to consider four issues. First, under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act, can the EPA control pollution only by considering direct changes to a polluting facility? Or can it also employ “beyond the fenceline” approaches that involve broader policies? </p>
<p><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/7411">Section 111</a> directs the EPA to identify and regulate categories of air pollution sources, such as oil refineries and power plants. The agency must determine the “best system of emission reduction” for each category and issue guidelines quantifying the reductions that are achievable under this system. States then submit plans to cut emissions, either by adopting the best system identified by the EPA or choosing alternative ways to achieve equivalent reductions.</p>
<p>In determining how to cut emissions, the Trump administration considered only changes that could be made directly to coal-fired power plants. The Obama administration, in contrast, also considered replacing those plants with electricity from lower-carbon sources, such as natural gas and renewable fuels. </p>
<p>The question of EPA’s latitude under Section 111 implicates a landmark decision of administrative law, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/467/837/">Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council</a>. That 1984 ruling instructs courts to follow a two-step procedure when reviewing an agency’s interpretation of a statute. </p>
<p>If Congress has given clear direction on the question at issue, courts and agencies must follow Congress’ expressed intent. However, if the statute is “silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue,” then courts should defer to the agency’s interpretation of the statute as long as it is reasonable. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446377/original/file-20220214-19-66vb53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch speaks at a Federalist Society Convention in Washington, D.C., Nov. 16, 2017." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446377/original/file-20220214-19-66vb53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446377/original/file-20220214-19-66vb53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446377/original/file-20220214-19-66vb53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446377/original/file-20220214-19-66vb53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446377/original/file-20220214-19-66vb53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446377/original/file-20220214-19-66vb53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446377/original/file-20220214-19-66vb53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">As an appeals court judge, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch sharply criticized the idea that courts should generally defer to agencies’ interpretations of federal law.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TrumpJudicialNominations/d0b45c1138dd4e968d5a83a66c6d4dc6/photo">AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz</a></span>
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<p>In recent years, conservative Supreme Court justices have <a href="https://dlj.law.duke.edu/article/the-future-of-chevron-deference-hickman-vol70-iss5/">criticized the Chevron decision as too deferential</a> to federal agencies. This approach, they suggest, allows unelected regulators to exercise too much power. </p>
<p>Could this case enable the court’s conservatives to curb agencies’ authority by eliminating Chevron deference? Perhaps not. This case presents a less-than-ideal vehicle for revisiting Chevron’s second step. </p>
<p>The Trump EPA argued that the “beyond the fenceline” issue should be resolved under the first step of Chevron. Section 111, the administration contended, flatly forbids the EPA from considering shifting to natural gas or renewable power sources. The lower court accordingly resolved the case under Chevron’s first step – rejecting the Trump EPA argument – and did not decide whether EPA’s view merited deference under Chevron’s second step. </p>
<p>Chevron deference aside, a restrictive interpretation of Section 111 could have serious implications for EPA’s regulatory authority. A narrow reading of Section 111 could rule out important and proven regulatory tools for reducing carbon pollution, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-h-w-bush-understood-that-markets-and-the-environment-werent-enemies-108011">emissions trading</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-may-dismantle-the-epa-clean-power-plan-but-its-targets-look-resilient-68460">shifting to cleaner fuels</a>.</p>
<h2>Do climate change regulations infringe on state authority?</h2>
<p>The second question focuses on Section 111’s allocation of authority between the states and the federal government. The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to issue emission reduction guidelines that states must follow in establishing pollution standards. </p>
<p>In repealing the Clean Power Plan, the Trump administration argued that the plan coerced states to apply EPA’s standards, violating the federal-state balance reflected in Section 111. Republican-led states are now making <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1530/204918/20211213175459245_Merits%20Brief%20of%20Petitioner%20the%20State%20of%20North%20Dakota%2020-1530.pdf">this same argument</a>.</p>
<p>However, the matter before the court is the Trump administration’s Affordable Clean Energy Rule, which does not present the same federalism issue. The question of whether the now-abandoned Clean Power Plan left the states sufficient flexibility is moot. </p>
<p>In my view, the court’s willingness to nonetheless consider federalism aspects of Section 111 could bode poorly for the EPA’s ability to issue meaningful emission reduction guidelines in the future.</p>
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<h2>Is carbon pollution from power plants a ‘major question’?</h2>
<p>The third issue that the court will consider is whether regulation of power plant carbon emissions constitutes a “major question.” The <a href="https://opencasebook.org/casebooks/1045-public-institutions-administrative-law-cases-materials/resources/4.2.4.1-major-questions-doctrine">major questions doctrine</a> provides that an agency may not regulate without clear direction from Congress on issues that have vast economic or political impacts. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court has never defined a major question, and it <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3927233">has applied the doctrine on only five occasions</a>. In the most prominent instance, in 2000, it <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/98-1152.ZO.html">invalidated the Food and Drug Administration’s attempt to regulate tobacco</a>. The court noted that the agency had never regulated tobacco before, its statutory authority over tobacco was unclear, and Congress had consistently assumed that the FDA lacked such authority. </p>
<p>By comparison, the Supreme Court has <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/06pdf/05-1120.pdf">affirmed</a> and <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-1146_4g18.pdf">reaffirmed</a> the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, and the agency’s authority to regulate power plant pollution under Section 111 is not in doubt. </p>
<p>However, when the Supreme Court struck down the workplace COVID-19 vaccine-or-test mandate on Jan. 13, 2022, Justice Neil Gorsuch penned a concurrence touting the major questions doctrine’s potential to <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21a244_hgci.pdf">check the power of federal agencies</a>. An expansive interpretation of the major questions doctrine here could cripple EPA’s ability to respond to climate change under the Clean Air Act. </p>
<p>If the court demands more specific statutory authorization, Congress may not be up to the task. Indeed, many observers fear a broad interpretation of the doctrine might have <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-supreme-court-case-that-could-upend-efforts-to-protect-the-environment">repercussions far beyond climate change</a>, radically curbing federal agencies’ power to protect human health and the environment, in response to both new threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic and familiar problems such as food safety. </p>
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<h2>Has Congress delegated too much power to the EPA?</h2>
<p>Finally, the court will consider whether Section 111 delegates too much lawmaking authority to EPA – a further opportunity for conservative justices to curb the power of federal agencies. The <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/nondelegation_doctrine">nondelegation doctrine</a> bars Congress from delegating its core lawmaking powers to regulatory agencies. When Congress authorizes agencies to regulate, it must give them an “intelligible principle” to guide their rulemaking discretion. </p>
<p>For decades, the court has reviewed statutory delegations of power deferentially. In fact, it has not invalidated a statute for violating the nondelegation doctrine since the 1930s. </p>
<p>In my view, Section 111 should easily satisfy the “intelligible principle” test. The statute sets out specific factors for the EPA to consider in determining the best system of emission reduction: costs, health and environmental impacts, and energy requirements. </p>
<p>Still, the case presents an opportunity for the court’s conservatives to invigorate the nondelegation doctrine. <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/17-6086_2b8e.pdf">A 2019 dissenting opinion by Justice Gorsuch</a>, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas, advocated a more stringent approach in which agencies would be limited to making necessary factual findings and “filling up the details” in a federal statutory scheme. Whether Section 111 – or many other federal laws – would survive this approach is unclear. </p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171475/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Lin was a trial attorney for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1998 to 2003. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and to the Honorable James Browning of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.</span></em></p>West Virginia v. EPA could be the opportunity that conservative justices have been seeking to curb federal power.Albert C. Lin, Professor of Law, University of California, DavisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1600712021-07-13T12:30:21Z2021-07-13T12:30:21ZUS immigration judges considering asylum for unaccompanied minors are ‘significantly influenced’ by politics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410390/original/file-20210708-17-bnhsbq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C18%2C4073%2C2709&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Unaccompanied immigrant minors wait on July 2, 2019 in Los Ebanos, Texas to be transported to a U.S. Border Patrol processing center after entering the U.S. to seek political asylum.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/unaccompanied-immigrant-minors-wait-to-be-transported-to-a-news-photo/1159807021?adppopup=true">John Moore/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The news over the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/06/us/migrants-border-coronavirus-san-diego.html">past</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/world/americas/migration-honduras-central-america.html">months</a> has been saturated with stories about another <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2021/07/02/america-has-seen-border-immigrant-surges-before-but-this-time-our-system-cant-handle-it/">“surge” of unaccompanied minors</a> crossing the southern border of the U.S. </p>
<p>In March 2021, the number of unaccompanied minors apprehended in the U.S. reached an <a href="https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/research/rising_border_encounters_in_2021.pdf">all-time monthly high</a> of 18,890. This surpassed the previous monthly high of 11,681 in May 2019.</p>
<p>One question not addressed in many of these stories is: How many of these children actually receive asylum and are allowed to stay in the country?</p>
<p>The people who make those decisions are immigration judges. Their decisions are supposed to be based on whether these children have <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-94/pdf/STATUTE-94-Pg102.pdf">fears of being persecuted</a> in their home countries and whether these fears are realistic. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12165">But our research</a> examining the period from early October 2013 until the end of September 2017 shows that these judges were influenced by factors outside of the case. Political factors such as ideology, political party of the president who appointed them and who was president at the time they decided the case significantly influenced whether these children were allowed to stay in the country. </p>
<p>Aside from political factors, immigration judges are also influenced by local contexts, such as unemployment levels, the number of uninsured children and size of Latino population in the places where they work.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410444/original/file-20210708-19-1wykvr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young children watch TV inside a pen in the federal government's holding facility in Donna, Texas." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410444/original/file-20210708-19-1wykvr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410444/original/file-20210708-19-1wykvr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410444/original/file-20210708-19-1wykvr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410444/original/file-20210708-19-1wykvr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410444/original/file-20210708-19-1wykvr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410444/original/file-20210708-19-1wykvr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410444/original/file-20210708-19-1wykvr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monitored by a caretaker, young unaccompanied migrants, ages 3-9, watch TV inside a play pen in the Department of Homeland Security holding facility on March 30, 2021 in Donna, Texas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/monitored-by-a-caretaker-young-unaccompanied-migrants-ages-news-photo/1232023563?adppopup=true">Dario Lopez-Mills - Pool/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Unaccompanied minors and asylum</h2>
<p>Under U.S. <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/5005">law</a>, an unaccompanied minor is a child under 18 years old who does not have lawful immigration status and no parent or legal guardian in the country who can provide care or custody. </p>
<p>Unaccompanied minors cannot be refused entry or removed from the country without legal process because of the 1993 Supreme Court case <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/91-905.ZS.html">Reno v. Flores</a>. In 2008, <a href="https://www.congress.gov/110/plaws/publ457/PLAW-110publ457.pdf">new legislation</a> allowed asylum officers to grant these children asylum at the U.S. border. If the asylum officer denies asylum to the minor, the minor may request asylum before an immigration judge.</p>
<p>Because immigration judges are not appointed under Article III of the Constitution, as federal judges are, they have less independence than those federal judges. According to <a href="https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/194/include/side_4.html">current Justice Department rules,</a> immigration judges are appointed by the attorney general and they act as his or her delegates.</p>
<h2>Political pressure</h2>
<p>In order to learn what factors affect the grant of relief to unaccompanied minors, we obtained data on their asylum applications from Oct. 2, 2013 to Sept. 29, 2017, covering over 10,000 cases from 280 different judges in 46 counties and 27 states. </p>
<p>Only 327 of the unaccompanied minors actually received asylum; 2,867 were deported and 455 chose to voluntarily leave. </p>
<p>An additional 6,645 children were allowed to stay in the country. Of those, 3,589 had their case administratively closed, which allows judges to suspend the case indefinitely without hearing and deciding on it. The remaining 3,056 had their case terminated, which means that the case against the child was dismissed. </p>
<p><iframe id="2sFs7" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/2sFs7/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>We ran a statistical analysis of political factors that may influence immigration judges’ decision: judicial ideology, political party of the appointing president and whether the decision was made before or during the Trump administration. </p>
<p>Following <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15266.html">previous research</a> on immigration judge’s ideology, we determined a judge’s ideology by considering their prior work experiences. Based on this research, we determined that some experiences, such as working for immigration agencies, are associated with more conservative views on immigration and asylum issues. </p>
<p>Conversely, work experiences in an immigration or non-immigration-related nonprofit or academia are associated with more liberal views. Our analysis showed that immigration judges with more liberal judicial ideology were more likely to rule in favor of granting asylum to these children.</p>
<p><iframe id="87XRG" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/87XRG/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>We also found that judges who were appointed by a Democratic attorney general were more likely to rule in favor of the minors. </p>
<p><iframe id="rvrjM" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/rvrjM/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Finally, statistical analysis showed that immigration judges were less likely to grant relief during the eight months of the Trump administration compared to the last three years of the Obama administration. </p>
<p><iframe id="esheS" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/esheS/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Why did politics and judges’ ideology play into their decisions?</p>
<p>We believe it’s because immigration judges are subject to political pressure from the president, indirectly, because they are appointed by the attorney general, who is also a presidential appointee and carries out the president’s policies and wishes. </p>
<h2>Local environment</h2>
<p>Pressure from the executive branch was not the only factor we concluded had influenced whether these children got to stay in the U.S. or were turned away. Aside from political and ideological values, judges may also have been influenced by their local contexts. </p>
<p>For example, we found that immigration judges in places with more Latinos were more likely to let these children stay. Conversely, immigration judges in states with lots of poor children were less likely to let these children stay than judges in states with relatively fewer poor kids. </p>
<p><iframe id="QeDxs" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/QeDxs/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Asylum decisions can be life-or-death matters. Although immigration judges consider the requirements of asylum law, they are also influenced by nonlegal factors when making decisions. </p>
<p>Political influence from the executive branch combined with local environmental pressures can affect how immigration judges rule. Most importantly, these influences can lead to some children not receiving asylum when they might otherwise be entitled to it. </p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-need-to-know">Sign up for Politics Weekly</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Immigration judges must base their decisions to grant asylum to immigrant children on whether these children have realistic fears of persecution. But other factors influence those decisions.Daniel Braaten, Associate professor of Political Science, Texas Lutheran UniversityClaire Nolasco Braaten, Associate Professor, Criminology, Texas A&M University-San AntonioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1608352021-05-13T12:35:07Z2021-05-13T12:35:07ZFree speech wasn’t so free 105 years ago, when ‘seditious’ and ‘unpatriotic’ speech was criminalized in the US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400378/original/file-20210512-24-1b89lot.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C3949%2C2877&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eugene Debs, at center with flowers, who was serving a prison sentence for violating the Espionage Act, on the day he was notified of his nomination for the presidency on the socialist ticket by a delegation of leading socialists.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/for-the-first-time-in-history-a-candidate-for-president-has-news-photo/530858130?adppopup=true">George Rinhard/Corbis Historical/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Just over a century ago, the United States government – in the midst of World War I – undertook unprecedented efforts to control and restrict what it saw as “unpatriotic” speech through passage of the <a href="http://www.legisworks.org/congress/65/publaw-150.pdf">Sedition Act of 1918</a>, signed by President Woodrow Wilson on May 16 of that year. </p>
<p>The restrictions – and the courts’ reactions to them – mark an important landmark in testing the limits of the First Amendment, and the beginnings of the current understanding of free speech in the U.S.</p>
<p>As a scholar and lawyer focused on <a href="https://ericrobinson.org/">freedom of speech in the U.S.</a>, I have studied the federal government’s attempts to restrict speech, including during World War I, and the legal cases that challenged them. These cases helped form the modern idea of the First Amendment right of free speech. But the conflict between patriotism and free expression continues to be an issue a century later.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400353/original/file-20210512-13-se0qvp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Emma Goldman in 1911 with dark hair in a bun, seated, looking straight at the camera through rimless spectacles." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400353/original/file-20210512-13-se0qvp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400353/original/file-20210512-13-se0qvp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400353/original/file-20210512-13-se0qvp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400353/original/file-20210512-13-se0qvp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400353/original/file-20210512-13-se0qvp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400353/original/file-20210512-13-se0qvp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400353/original/file-20210512-13-se0qvp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anarchist, political activist and writer Emma Goldman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a48924/">Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Government’s pursuit of ‘radicals’</h2>
<p>The onset of war led to a patriotic fervor, fed by an intense government <a href="https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/overhere/more">propaganda campaign</a>. It also led to new challenges to the concept of free speech.</p>
<p>Within a few weeks of declaring war in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed the <a href="https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=3904">Espionage Act</a>. </p>
<p>This law, which is still largely in effect, makes it a crime to do three things. First, to convey false information in order to interfere with the American military, or promote the success of America’s enemies. Second, to cause or attempt to cause insubordination within the military. Third, to willfully obstruct military recruitment or enlistment. </p>
<p>Both the Obama and Trump administrations used this law to investigate unauthorized leaks of government information, including <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-justice-department-secretly-obtained-post-reporters-e2-80-99-phone-records/ar-BB1gu5rD">obtaining reporters’ phone records</a>.</p>
<p>The more restrictive <a href="https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=3903">Sedition Act of 1918</a> went further, amending the Espionage Act to criminalize “disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive” speech about the United States or its symbols; speech to impede war production; and statements supporting a country with which the U.S. is at war.</p>
<p>These laws were unprecedented restrictions on speech, and challenged the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-1/freedom-of-expression-speech-and-press">First Amendment’s founding concept of tolerating criticism of government</a>. But the courts, including the United States Supreme Court, generally upheld them as necessary wartime restrictions.</p>
<p>“When a nation is at war,” the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/249us47">Schenk v. United States (1919)</a>, “many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight, and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right.”</p>
<h2>Many convictions</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.history.com/news/sedition-espionage-acts-woodrow-wilson-wwi">More than 2,000 people were prosecuted</a> under the Espionage and Sedition acts during the war. About half were convicted, many of whom were given jail time. </p>
<p>These included several people who distributed leaflets arguing that the draft constituted slavery (as in the Schenk case) and those who urged labor strikes against munitions plants (as in the U.S. Supreme Court case <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/250us616">Abrams v. United States (1919)</a>. Those convicted included leaders of the Socialist and Communist parties, including anarchist writer <a href="http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/goldman/">Emma Goldman</a> and Socialist presidential candidate <a href="http://debsfoundation.org/">Eugene V. Debs</a>, whose <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2019/09/22/socialist-who-ran-president-prison-won-nearly-million-votes/">1920 campaign was mounted from prison</a>.</p>
<p>A few judges – notably U.S. Supreme Court justices <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1316/louis-brandeis">Louis Brandeis</a> and <a href="https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1337/oliver-wendell-holmes-jr">Oliver Wendell Holmes</a> – expressed concerns that the prosecution of war dissenters was contrary to the First Amendment protection of free speech. As Holmes explained in <a href="https://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/democrac/43.htm">his famous dissent</a> in the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/personality/landmark_abrams.html">Abrams case</a>, “Congress certainly cannot forbid all effort to change the mind of the country.”</p>
<p>The war ended in November 1918, but the Sedition Act continued to be used against so-called “radicals,” including a Justice Department campaign known as the <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/palmer-raids">Palmer Raids</a> in response to several terrorist bombings. The effort was named for Wilson’s attorney general, A. Mitchell Palmer, whose home was among the locations bombed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400369/original/file-20210512-17-9gsjdn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Oliver Wendell Holmes, gray haired and with a big mustache, sitting at a desk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400369/original/file-20210512-17-9gsjdn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400369/original/file-20210512-17-9gsjdn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400369/original/file-20210512-17-9gsjdn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400369/original/file-20210512-17-9gsjdn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400369/original/file-20210512-17-9gsjdn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400369/original/file-20210512-17-9gsjdn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/400369/original/file-20210512-17-9gsjdn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote against speech restrictions, saying ‘Congress certainly cannot forbid all effort to change the mind of the country.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/oliver-wendell-holmes-associate-justice-of-the-supreme-news-photo/515357096?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>After World War II, a reassessment</h2>
<p>The Sedition Act was finally <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9801E0DD133CE533A25757C0A9659C946095D6CF&legacy=true">repealed</a> on Wilson’s last day in office in 1921, although the Espionage Act remains.</p>
<p>All those who were jailed under the laws saw their sentences <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D07EFDB1130E233A25755C1A9649D946295D6CF&legacy=true">commuted</a> by 1923. In 1924, Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone concluded that law enforcement should be concerned with only the conduct of individuals, not their “political or other opinions.” In 1931, President Franklin Roosevelt <a href="http://todayinclh.com/?event=president-roosevelt-grants-amnesty-to-last-of-ww-i-political-prisoners">offered amnesty</a> to all those convicted under the Espionage or Sedition acts during the war.</p>
<p>But speech restrictions returned. In the run-up to American entry into World War II, Congress adopted the <a href="https://totallyhistory.com/smith-act-of-1940/">Smith Act</a> in 1940, which barred speech and organizations intended to overthrow any government in the United States. It was used during the war and the Red Scare of the 1950s to suppress dissemination of Communist ideas and thought.“</p>
<p>Eventually, however, <a href="https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/brandenburg-v-ohio/">in 1969</a> the Supreme Court settled on the current legal standard, under which speech can be restricted only if it presents a threat of <a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/incitement.htm">"imminent lawless action,”</a> based on the circumstances in which it is made. </p>
<p>This standard allows for controversial, even incendiary, speech, unless there is an immediate threat that the speech will foreseeably lead to illegal behavior by the audience.</p>
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<p>Despite calls for repression of dissent after the Sept. 11 attacks, <a href="http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2975&context=journal_articles#page=16">no direct restrictions</a> on speech were enacted. In 2020 Attorney General William Barr <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/16/us/politics/william-barr-sedition.html">called for prosecutions</a> of violent protesters, but no such charges were filed. There were also calls for <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-14/is-trump-s-jan-6-rally-speech-protected-by-the-first-amendment">President Donald Trump to be prosecuted</a> for the fiery speech that preceded the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6. But the <a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/incitement.htm">“imminent lawless action”</a> standard is a high threshold.</p>
<p>This reluctance to prosecute speech may well reflect the lessons learned from the excesses of repression under the Espionage Act a century ago. The First Amendment right of free speech exists as a means of keeping a critical eye on government. Such scrutiny is always important, but is especially critical during times of war.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/during-world-war-i-a-silent-film-spoke-volumes-about-freedom-of-speech-75440">article originally published</a> on April 6, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160835/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric P. Robinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Free speech is a long American tradition – but so are attempts to restrict free speech. A First Amendment scholar writes about measures a century ago to silence those criticizing government.Eric P. Robinson, Assistant Professor of Media Law and Ethics, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1532692021-01-26T14:22:47Z2021-01-26T14:22:47ZU.S.-Cuba relations: Will Joe Biden pick up where Barack Obama left off?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380489/original/file-20210125-21-1pam6z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6362%2C3933&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">American and Cuban flags hang from a wall with an old camera hung in between in Havana, Cuba, on Jan. 11, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Under the new Joe Biden administration in the United States, significant changes in foreign policy are already taking place. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-signs-executive-orders-day-one/">The 15 executive orders</a> Biden signed during his first day in office make this very clear. One of his next foreign policy challenges, and opportunities, will be Cuba.</p>
<p>The Donald Trump administration rejected the successful rapprochement of Cuba-U.S. relations <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/10/14/presidential-policy-directive-united-states-cuba-normalization">established under former president Barack Obama</a>. </p>
<p>Instead, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-announces-new-measures-against-cuba/2019/04/17/cfc2bc96-6132-11e9-9ff2-abc984dc9eec_story.html">Trump introduced measures that reduced remittance money from exiles</a>, prohibited cruise ship traffic, stopped flights from the U.S. to most Cuban cities, encouraged legislation against the Cuban state, outlawed the possibility of U.S. investment on the island, fined companies that assisted trade with Cuba, and made cultural and academic exchanges almost impossible.</p>
<p>In Trump’s last week in office, Cuba was also placed on the U.S. list of <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/trump-hits-cuba-with-new-terrorism-sanctions-in-waning-days-1.5262326">countries supporting terrorism</a>.</p>
<p>What path will the Biden administration follow?</p>
<h2>Troubled relationship</h2>
<p>Unlike Canada, the U.S. has a long and troubled relationship with post-revolution Cuba that’s included <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/fidel-castros-death/fidel-castro-cia-s-7-most-bizarre-assassination-attempts-n688951">several assassination attempts against Fidel Castro</a>, a trade embargo that has lasted 60 years and a record of <a href="https://cuba-solidarity.org.uk/resources/usintervention.pdf">supporting terrorism attacks</a>. More than 3,400 Cubans have been killed in these attacks, according to the book <em><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183p8v9">Voices from the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism against Cuba</a></em>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.voanews.com/americas/obama-moved-aggressively-restore-relations-cuba">The relationship improved dramatically</a> under the Obama administration. Diplomatic relations were renewed, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/20/barack-obama-cuba-visit-us-politics-shift-public-opinion-diplomacy">the president visited Cuba in 2016</a> (the first by a sitting president since 1928), 22 bilateral agreements were signed, U.S. investment started, trade increased, hundreds of thousands of Americans visited the islands, Havana became a major stop for U.S.-based cruise lines, medical co-operation on cancer research began and cultural, sports and academic exchanges flourished. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Raul Castro lifts Barack Obama's arm." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380459/original/file-20210125-23-1q21591.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380459/original/file-20210125-23-1q21591.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380459/original/file-20210125-23-1q21591.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380459/original/file-20210125-23-1q21591.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380459/original/file-20210125-23-1q21591.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380459/original/file-20210125-23-1q21591.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380459/original/file-20210125-23-1q21591.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this March 2016 photo, Cuban President Raul Castro, right, lifts up the arm of U.S. President Barack Obama, at the conclusion of their joint news conference at the Palace of the Revolution, in Havana, Cuba.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/donald-trump-reverses-barack-obamas-cuba-policy">Then along came Trump</a>, undoing these initiatives.</p>
<p>But now Obama’s vice-president is in the Oval Office. Speaking in September 2020, <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/biden-discusses-approach-to-cuba-in-nbc-6-interview/2603419">Biden said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I’d try to reverse the failed Trump policies, they inflicted harm on Cubans and their families … [and] done nothing to advance democracy and human rights.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This won’t be without challenges, however, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/politics/cuba-terrorism-trump-pompeo.html">and former secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s move</a> to place Cuba on the list of countries supporting terrorism, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fury-trumps-11th-hour-yemen-cuba-sanctions/story?id=75184964">although criticized</a>, could delay any meaningful reforms the new administration by several months. Cuba will also be expected to show that it is prepared to make concessions on human rights issues to the United States.</p>
<h2>Quick progress</h2>
<p>Nonetheless, there are several areas where Biden could move relatively quickly by reintroducing some of Obama’s policies.</p>
<p>Limits on remittances from Americans to Cuba <a href="https://www.theguardian.pe.ca/news/world/cubans-applaud-biden-win-hope-for-easing-of-sanctions-517979/">could be re-established</a>. They were without limit under Obama, but reduced to a maximum of $1,000 every quarter by Trump. Post-pandemic, Biden could also easily allow flights to resume from the U.S. to Cuba, a move that would be popular in the Cuban-American community. </p>
<p>By September 2019, <a href="https://www.tourism-review.com/cuban-tourism-reported-decreased-numbers-news11245">almost a million Americans and Cuban-Americans had visited Cuba that year</a>. This trend would likely resume.</p>
<p>In the medium term, and barring any radical changes in international politics, Biden could remove Cuba from the list of countries that support terrorism. Americans would then be allowed to travel to Cuba without the need for special licences designed to limit their trips there. Many U.S. commercial organizations <a href="https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/15164-farm-groups-ask-biden-to-improve-cuba-relations">could again be allowed to trade with Cuba</a>.</p>
<p>Americans who want to take cruises to Cuba <a href="https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Insights/Biden-as-president-Cuba-cruises">could again be permitted to do so</a>. Cultural and educational exchanges, as well as academic projects, could be reinstated. Some joint scientific projects, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/04/12/promising-cubaus-cooperation-cancer">ranging from the successful cancer research project</a> at Roswell Park in Buffalo, N.Y, to <a href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-cuba-oil-clean-water-20150201-story.html">coral reef research in the Florida Straits</a>, could be renewed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380470/original/file-20210125-17-1r6p8g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380470/original/file-20210125-17-1r6p8g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380470/original/file-20210125-17-1r6p8g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380470/original/file-20210125-17-1r6p8g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380470/original/file-20210125-17-1r6p8g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380470/original/file-20210125-17-1r6p8g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380470/original/file-20210125-17-1r6p8g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An American cruise ship that arrived from Miami is seen in the Havana harbour in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Desmond Boylan)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cuba-sends-white-coat-army-doctors-fight-coronavirus-different-countries-n1240028">Cuba has sent thousands of medical personnel</a> to dozens of countries during the COVID-19 crisis, a sign that bilateral medical collaboration offers tremendous opportunities for the U.S. as it’s ravaged by the coronavirus.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cuba-steps-up-in-the-fight-against-coronavirus-at-home-and-around-the-world-137565">Cuba steps up in the fight against coronavirus, at home and around the world</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Sooner or later the thorny issue of the so-called “<a href="https://theconversation.com/sonic-attacks-how-a-medical-mystery-can-sow-distrust-in-foreign-governments-98417">sonic attacks</a>” reported by American and Canadian diplomats in 2016 and 2017 needs to be addressed. So far, despite investigations by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the RCMP, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/07/health/cuba-sonic-attack-crickets-scli-intl/index.html">no cause has been definitively identified</a>. Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy <a href="https://thehill.com/latino/376454-us-embassy-in-havana-permanently-sticking-with-skeleton-staff-after-attacks">is operating with a skeleton staff</a>, and consular services are virtually non-existent. Restoring the full staff complement would go a long way to improve U.S.-Cuba relations.</p>
<h2>Guantanamo, embargo</h2>
<p>Two long-term issues may remain unresolved during the Biden administration. </p>
<p>Human rights organizations have long called for the U.S. military base in Guantánamo <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/guantanamo-bay-human-rights">to be closed</a>, and it’s unclear whether Biden will take up Obama’s unsuccessful efforts to shut down the notorious detention centre. </p>
<p>Equally challenging is the American economic, commercial and financial embargo of Cuba, in place since the early 1960s. This, too, has resulted in international condemnation. In November 2019, <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/11/1050891">187 countries condemned the embargo</a>, with only three supporting it. While the embargo can only be lifted with an act of Congress, Biden has ample options to amend the implementation of the legislation, which could pave the way for it to end.</p>
<p>Canadians look askance at the approach taken by various U.S. administrations on Cuba. By contrast, we have a normal relationship with the island. <a href="https://oncubanews.com/en/cuba/canadians-return-to-cuba/">Over a million Canadians travel there every year for vacations</a>. </p>
<p>Sherritt International, a nickel mining and energy development company based in Toronto, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-19/biden-easing-up-on-cuba-would-boost-canadian-miner-ceo-says">is one of the largest foreign investors</a>.</p>
<p>Pierre Trudeau and Fidel Castro were good friends — Castro even attended Trudeau’s funeral.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Fidel Castro looks at Pierre Trudeau's casket, draped with a Canadian flag." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380482/original/file-20210125-21-wwctiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380482/original/file-20210125-21-wwctiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380482/original/file-20210125-21-wwctiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380482/original/file-20210125-21-wwctiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380482/original/file-20210125-21-wwctiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380482/original/file-20210125-21-wwctiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380482/original/file-20210125-21-wwctiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cuban President Fidel Castro pays his respects to former prime minister Pierre Trudeau during the lying-in-state ceremony at Montréal’s city hall in October 2000.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CP PHOTO/Aaron Harris</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It remains to be seen if Joe Biden can return to the heady days of the Obama administration when, for the first time in more than 50 years, embassies were reopened in both Cuba and the United States. </p>
<p>The government in Havana clearly remains open to a rapprochement, while the Cuban people <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/12/15/bb-bidens-team-is-planning-a-Cuba-reset-sources">would welcome it</a> with open arms. The U.S. could also gain from Cuba’s assistance in <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/30/heres-how-the-us-venezuela-relationship-reached-a-boiling-point.html">seeking a political solution to the Venezuelan quagmire</a>.</p>
<p>Hopefully, common sense will prevail and Biden will be able to return to the path blazed by Obama, <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/cuba-biden-obama-trump">when two years of bilateral negotiations</a> helped undo more than five decades of hostility. It is clearly time to turn the page.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153269/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Kirk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Joe Biden could return to the path blazed by Barack Obama on Cuba, when two years of bilateral negotiations helped undo more than five decades of hostility.John Kirk, Professor of Latin American Studies, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1313572020-06-10T12:14:00Z2020-06-10T12:14:00ZCuba’s clean rivers show the benefits of reducing nutrient pollution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340387/original/file-20200608-176538-bngvkb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1280%2C960&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Aniel Arruebarenna, a team member from the Centro de Estudios Ambientales de Cienfuegos, prepares to collect flow measurements.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joshua Brown/University of Vermont</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For most of the past 60 years, the United States and Cuba have had very limited diplomatic ties. President Barack Obama started the process of <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/10/14/presidential-policy-directive-united-states-cuba-normalization">normalizing U.S.-Cuba relations</a>, but the Trump administration reversed this policy, <a href="https://www.state.gov/u-s-relations-with-cuba/">sharply reducing interactions</a> between the two countries.</p>
<p>Scientific cooperation is a bright spot in this difficult history. Since the 19th century, U.S. institutions like the Smithsonian and the National Academy of Sciences have <a href="https://www.scielosp.org/pdf/medicc/2018.v20n2/23-26/en">worked with Cuban counterparts</a> to understand topics such as vector-borne disease transmission. Although political friction has often made such partnerships challenging, many scientists on both sides believe their countries <a href="https://www.aaas.org/news/aaas-cuba-partnership-health-diplomacy-celebrated-us-release-medicc-review-special-edition">stand to gain</a> by tackling health and environmental challenges together.</p>
<p>We are geoscientists who study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=nZ6d2zUAAAAJ&hl=en">how landscapes change</a> through processes such as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=h3DEhtEAAAAJ&hl=en">erosion</a>. For the past two and a half years, we and our team of U.S. scientists have been working with Cuban geoscientists to understand the environmental and water quality effects of progressive agricultural policies in Cuba.</p>
<p>In a recently published study, we show that Cuban rivers are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1130/GSATG419A.1">cleaner than the mighty Mississippi</a>. Why? Because Cuban farmers practice organic farming and conservation agriculture to <a href="https://collections.elementascience.org/cubas-agrifood-system-in-transition/">reduce soil erosion and nutrient loss</a>. In sum, Cuba is doing a better job than the U.S. at keeping farming from hurting its rivers, and its results offer useful lessons. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8MsnXTMC1-E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Cuba’s organic farming system has gained attention from many other parts of the world.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A test case in sustainable farming</h2>
<p>Cuban rivers run from the mountains to the ocean through cow-filled pastures, fields of sugar cane and rice paddies, <a href="https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2017.1026">forests, wetlands and mangroves</a>. Along the way, groundwater seeps into river channels from below. When heavy thunderstorms strike, water pours off the land. </p>
<p>These flows carry soil and dissolved material into streams, which deliver this load to the coast. Cuba’s coastlines have abundant mangrove thickets, underwater seagrass beds and some of the Caribbean’s <a href="https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/cuba/cuba-s-coral-reefs">best-preserved coral reefs</a>.</p>
<p>We became interested in teaming with Cuban scientists because of their nation’s country-wide experiment in organic agriculture dating back to the late 1980s. When the Soviet Union, Cuba’s former trading partner, broke apart, Cuban farmers lost access to fertilizers, pesticides and heavy equipment, and had to <a href="https://theconversation.com/cubas-sustainable-agriculture-at-risk-in-u-s-thaw-56773">adopt a more ecologically based aproach</a>. Could their experience provide a blueprint for more sustainable approaches to feeding the world? </p>
<p>We used the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/">ResearchGate</a> network to find Cuban collaborators. Supported by the <a href="http://nsf.gov">U.S. National Science Foundation</a> and the <a href="https://www.ceac.cu">Centro de Estudios Ambientales de Cienfuegos</a>, the research we are doing in Cuba builds on measurements we have done all over the world. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314294/original/file-20200209-27533-12g2uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314294/original/file-20200209-27533-12g2uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314294/original/file-20200209-27533-12g2uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314294/original/file-20200209-27533-12g2uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314294/original/file-20200209-27533-12g2uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314294/original/file-20200209-27533-12g2uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314294/original/file-20200209-27533-12g2uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314294/original/file-20200209-27533-12g2uu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cuban scientists Aniel Arruebarenna and Victor Perez filter sediment from river water in western Cuba so that elements dissolved in the water can be analyzed accurately.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Bierman</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Less fertilizer runoff in Cuba</h2>
<p>For this study we analyzed water samples from each of 25 rivers in central Cuba, looking for elements from across the periodic table and for bacteria.
Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1130/GSATG419A.1">first results</a> show that Cuba’s sustainable agricultural practices minimize the impact of agriculture on river water quality by reducing the amount of nitrogen fertilizer that washes off from fields into local waters. </p>
<p>Cuban farmers use about half as much fertilizer for each acre of farmland than their U.S. counterparts (3 versus 6 tons per square kilometer per year in 2016). As a result, rivers in central Cuba contain much lower concentrations of dissolved nitrogen than the Mississippi River, which drains <a href="https://www.nps.gov/miss/riverfacts.htm">more than 1 million square miles</a> of America’s agricultural heartland. On average, the Cuban rivers we analyzed contained 0.76 milligrams of nitrogen per liter of water, compared to 1.3 milligrams per liter in the Mississippi River from 2012-2019.</p>
<p>American crop yields per acre are higher than Cuba’s, thanks partly to fertilizer use, but the trade-off is stark. Nutrients that pour off U.S. farm fields and flow down the Mississippi River create the <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-forecasts-very-large-dead-zone-for-gulf-of-mexico">Gulf of Mexico dead zone</a>, a patch of ocean where oxygen levels are so low that almost no marine life survives. The dead zone forms every summer, fed by spring rainfall, and has covered an <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/large-dead-zone-measured-in-gulf-of-mexico">average of 6,000 square miles</a> in recent years.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314297/original/file-20200209-27560-zgllxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314297/original/file-20200209-27560-zgllxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314297/original/file-20200209-27560-zgllxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=180&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314297/original/file-20200209-27560-zgllxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=180&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314297/original/file-20200209-27560-zgllxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=180&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314297/original/file-20200209-27560-zgllxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314297/original/file-20200209-27560-zgllxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314297/original/file-20200209-27560-zgllxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Organopónico El Alba, an organic urban garden in Cienfuegos, Cuba.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Bierman</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cuba’s rivers do contain other pollutants. We found high levels of bacteria and sediment in most of the rivers we sampled. DNA analysis suggests that at least some of these bacteria were from the guts of cows. We saw many cows during our field work in central Cuba, and those animals had free access to local streams. Simple solutions, like fencing river banks, could greatly lower bacteria levels in surface waters.</p>
<p>We also found naturally high levels of calcium, sodium and magnesium in Cuban river water. These materials come from rocks that are naturally dissolved by rainwater. None of them are hazardous to humans, although they might leave scale in tea kettles and alter the water’s taste.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314318/original/file-20200209-27538-10uqpxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314318/original/file-20200209-27538-10uqpxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314318/original/file-20200209-27538-10uqpxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314318/original/file-20200209-27538-10uqpxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314318/original/file-20200209-27538-10uqpxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314318/original/file-20200209-27538-10uqpxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314318/original/file-20200209-27538-10uqpxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314318/original/file-20200209-27538-10uqpxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Limestone cliffs in the Vinales Valley, western Cuba, dissolve in abundant warm rain and add calcium to river water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Bierman, University of Vermont</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Enabling more scientific cooperation</h2>
<p>Although we’ve done field work on Greenland’s ice sheet and in rice paddies of southwest China, this work in Cuba has been a uniquely valuable experience for us, both professionally and personally. We found Cuban culture to be warm and welcoming, even to Americans whose leaders for the most part have shunned the Cuban people for decades. </p>
<p>Sharing and teamwork are key parts of Cuban culture. When we brought out American snacks during our first visit to Cuba, our collaborators insisted these gifts must be shared with the entire lab staff. In the tropical January sunshine, scientists, technicians, secretaries and directors gathered outside to eat Vermont maple candies and blueberry jam.</p>
<p>We view this project as <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.367.6483.1274">science diplomacy</a> in action. But our Cuban partners cannot visit us until the United States agrees to grant visas to Cuban scientists. The Trump administration is going in the opposite direction: It has <a href="https://www.state.gov/united-states-further-restricts-air-travel-to-cuba/">suspended commercial and public charter flights</a> to Cuba from the U.S. and imposed sanctions that are designed to <a href="https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/cuba_fact_sheet_20190906.pdf">deny Cuba access to hard currency</a>.</p>
<p>As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps around the world, scientific cooperation is more important than ever. To us, it doesn’t make sense to increase sanctions against a country that has more doctors per capita than any country on Earth and has <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-response-why-cuba-is-such-an-interesting-case-135749">responded more successfully than many nations</a> to COVID-19. We believe that science in the U.S. would gain from reopening communication with Cuba and sharing knowledge that could help heal the global community.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131357/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Bierman receives funding from the US National Science Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda H. Schmidt receives funding from the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p>Cuba’s sustainable approach to farming has protected its rivers from the kind of nutrient pollution that impairs many US waterways.Paul Bierman, Professor of Geology and Natural Resources and Fellow of the Gund Institute for Environment, University of VermontAmanda H. Schmidt, Associate Professor of Geology, Oberlin College and ConservatoryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1264772019-11-12T12:52:46Z2019-11-12T12:52:46ZCan the Paris Agreement on climate change succeed without the US? 4 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300934/original/file-20191108-194641-107z5hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4424%2C2951&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the Climate Summit in the U.N. General Assembly, Sept. 23, 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-UN-General-Assembly-Climate-Summit/f20925f3a28544dca990ffed5e91a811/1/0">AP Photo/Jason DeCrow</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: On Nov. 4, the Trump administration formally notified the United Nations that it planned to withdraw the U.S. from the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement">Paris Agreement on climate change</a>, which 196 countries adopted in 2015. The pact is designed to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in this century, and if possible, to limit the increase to 1.5°C. Boston University international relations scholar Henrik Selin explains how U.S. withdrawal will affect prospects for avoiding the worst effects of global warming.</em></p>
<h2>1. What is the process for a country to leave the Paris Agreement?</h2>
<p>President Trump announced in the summer of 2017 that he intended to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-trumps-decision-to-leave-paris-accord-hurts-the-us-and-the-world-78707">withdraw the United States</a> from the Paris Agreement, as he had pledged during the 2016 campaign. The agreement was adopted in 2015 and entered into international legal force on Nov. 4, 2016. </p>
<p><a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/english_paris_agreement.pdf">Article 28</a> of the agreement stipulates that a member can begin a formal withdrawal process no earlier than three years after the treaty enters into force. The Trump administration took this step when it notified the Secretary-General of the United Nations on Nov. 4, 2019 that it intends to leave.</p>
<p>Trump’s notice of withdrawal will become effective one year later, on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020 – one day after the next presidential election.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dp5Ue9v2v7g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hails a parliamentary vote on Nov. 7, 2019, committing the nation to reducing its carbon emissions to zero by 2050 in line with the Paris Agreement.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. What does the US exit mean for curbing climate change?</h2>
<p>The Trump administration’s action will have political and practical implications, but it is unclear exactly how severe they will be.</p>
<p>The Paris Agreement was adopted thanks in part to <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2016/09/03/president-obama-united-states-formally-enters-paris-agreement">strong political backing from the Obama administration</a>, and U.S. disengagement now creates a political void. Other major emitters, including <a href="https://unfccc.int/news/china-eu-reaffirm-strong-commitment-to-paris-agreement">China and the European Union</a>, have made it clear that they still support the treaty, but U.S. absence will change the political dynamics. </p>
<p>U.S. withdrawal makes it more important for the remaining countries to show strong political commitment to collectively implementing the treaty. At the New York Climate Action Summit in September 2019, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres called on countries to <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/assets/pdf/CAS_main_release.pdf">accelerate action</a> to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions</p>
<p>“The climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win,” Guterres said.</p>
<p>Many countries’ voluntary pledges under the Paris Agreement are modest, and scientists estimate that taken together, they are <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/global/temperatures/">wholly inadequate</a> to meet stated <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/what-is-the-paris-agreement">temperature goals</a> focused on average global temperature increases of 2 degrees Celsius and 1.5°C. </p>
<p>Currently the U.S. is the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, producing <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/06/chart-of-the-day-these-countries-create-most-of-the-world-s-co2-emissions/">roughly 15%</a> of global annual carbon dioxide emissions. In addition to pulling out of the the Paris Agreement, the Trump administration is <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-slams-brakes-on-obamas-climate-plan-but-theres-still-a-long-road-ahead-75252">rolling back relevant federal mandates</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/18/761815991/white-house-to-revoke-waiver-allowing-california-to-set-its-own-emissions-standa">making it harder</a> for U.S. states such as California to take action to reduce fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300937/original/file-20191108-194675-1ktzh2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300937/original/file-20191108-194675-1ktzh2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300937/original/file-20191108-194675-1ktzh2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300937/original/file-20191108-194675-1ktzh2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300937/original/file-20191108-194675-1ktzh2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300937/original/file-20191108-194675-1ktzh2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=688&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300937/original/file-20191108-194675-1ktzh2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=688&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300937/original/file-20191108-194675-1ktzh2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=688&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As the world’s second-largest carbon dioxide emitter, the U.S. plays a central role in global efforts to slow climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2019/10/Annual-CO2-emissions-Treemap-1.png">Our World in Data/Hannah Ritchie</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the future trajectory of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions is not determined by whether or not the country belongs to the Paris Agreement. Key factors are federal and <a href="https://theconversation.com/red-state-rural-america-is-acting-on-climate-change-without-calling-it-climate-change-69866">state-level policy decisions</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/market-forces-are-driving-a-clean-energy-revolution-in-the-us-95204">economic trends in energy markets</a> and the pace of technological development. Renewable energy sources are <a href="https://www.irena.org/publications/2019/May/Renewable-power-generation-costs-in-2018">rapidly becoming cheaper</a>, making them more economically attractive. </p>
<p>Even after exiting the Paris Agreement, the United States may end up <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/usa/pledges-and-targets/">meeting its commitment</a> to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26%-28% below the 2005 level by 2025. But that’s only a fraction of what will be required over the next few decades to constitute a serious contribution toward meeting global temperature goals. Put another way, addressing climate change will require strong efforts by all major emitters – including the U.S. – to speed up the transition to a lower-carbon economy.</p>
<h2>3. How many other countries have not joined the Paris Agreement?</h2>
<p>Currently 186 countries – counting the U.S. – plus the European Union are parties to the Paris Agreement. When the U.S. leaves, it will join a short but eclectic list of nations that have <a href="https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XXVII-7-d&chapter=27&clang=_en">signed but not ratified the agreement</a>, including Angola, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, South Sudan, Turkey and Yemen. </p>
<h2>4. Can the US rejoin the Paris Agreement?</h2>
<p>Yes. The pact sets out procedures for both leaving and joining the treaty after its entry into force. </p>
<p>Article 21 <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/english_paris_agreement.pdf">states</a> that a country that is not a party to the agreement can join it by submitting a formal notification, which will take effect 30 days later. This procedure is the same whether a country used to be a party and then withdrew, or is joining for the first time. </p>
<p>If a candidate other than President Trump wins the 2020 election, he or she will take office on Jan. 20, 2021 and could serve notice that day that the U.S. planned to rejoin the Paris Agreement. In this scenario, the United States could be back by late February of 2021, less than four months after President Trump’s move to withdraw becomes official. </p>
<p>However, when the U.S. joined the Paris Agreement in late 2015, the Obama administration made a legal assessment that this decision was up to the president, classifying it as an <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/9780472116874-ch1.pdf">executive agreement</a> that did not require Senate approval or changes to U.S. domestic laws. If a future return were conditioned on Senate ratification, it is highly unlikely that it would receive the necessary 67 votes, due to strong opposition mainly from Republican senators. </p>
<p>Even if the United States does rejoin the Paris Agreement in the future, other countries will remember that it unilaterally left an agreement that had global support and may well believe that the U.S. could do so again in the future. America’s reputation as a reliable international partner has already suffered damage that will take a long time to repair. </p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126477/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henrik Selin receives funding from the International Renewable Energy Agency. </span></em></p>President Trump has confirmed that the US will leave the Paris Agreement on climate change on the earliest allowable date: Nov. 4, 2020. Will this hobble efforts to slow global warming?Henrik Selin, Associate Professor in the Frederick S Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1119562019-03-06T11:40:28Z2019-03-06T11:40:28ZUS takes tentative steps toward opening up government data<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261952/original/file-20190304-92298-1uc0ll9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Open data offers great promise, but also some risk.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/open-data-security-issues-key-golden-583784431">rawf8/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At the beginning of this year, <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/4174/text">President Trump signed into law</a> the Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary Government Data Act, requiring that nonsensitive government data be made available in machine-readable, open formats by default.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://kelley.iu.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/profile.cshtml?id=ANGRAYMO">researchers</a> <a href="https://spea.indiana.edu/faculty-research/directory/profiles/faculty/full-time/cate-beth.html">who</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YtgRGx0AAAAJ&hl=en">study</a> data governance and cyber law, we are excited by the possibilities of the new act. But much effort is needed to fill in missing details – especially since these data can be used in unpredictable or unintended ways. </p>
<p>The federal government would benefit from considering lessons learned from open government activities in other countries and at state and local levels. </p>
<h2>Cracking the door toward open data</h2>
<p>Open government is the governing doctrine which holds that citizens have the right to access the documents and proceedings of the government to allow for effective public oversight. The doctrine has drawn increased attention in recent years, as a growing list of nations agree to participate in a global voluntary commitment towards democratic reforms, <a href="https://www.opengovpartnership.org/">via the Open Government Partnership initiative</a>. </p>
<p>America was one of the Open Government Partnership’s eight founding countries in 2011, and the Open Government Partnership was an outgrowth of domestic open government initiatives <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/open">launched</a> in the first months of the Obama presidency.</p>
<p>In December 2009, Obama <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/open/documents/open-government-directive">issued a directive</a> requiring federal agencies to proactively publish government information online in open formats and to take other steps toward building a culture of openness around data. </p>
<p>This initiative launched the <a href="http://data.gov">Data.gov</a> website that publishes government databases, as well as <a href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov">WeThePeople.gov</a>, for petitioning the government; <a href="http://challenge.gov">Challenge.gov</a>, for competing to help the government solve problems; and <a href="http://USASpending.gov">USASpending.gov</a>, disclosing and tracking the federal budget. </p>
<p>Open government data have already produced <a href="https://www.data.gov/impact/">direct impacts</a> on Americans’ daily lives. For example, detailed city profiles offer information such as demographics, crime rates, weather patterns and home values. These data, in turn, allow developers to build more robust applications for individuals, such as a health inspection score app or <a href="https://www.accuweather.com/">AccuWeather</a>, which provides minute-by-minute precipitation forecasts.</p>
<p>Because the Obama administration’s efforts toward openness were driven by executive orders and not legislation, they faced possible rollback by later administrations. The Trump administration’s early removal of <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-web-pages-erased-and-obscured-under-trump/">climate science-related data</a> on agency websites, for example, raised concerns among researchers and others about its commitment to transparency and accountability.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261953/original/file-20190304-92292-atk8k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261953/original/file-20190304-92292-atk8k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261953/original/file-20190304-92292-atk8k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261953/original/file-20190304-92292-atk8k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261953/original/file-20190304-92292-atk8k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261953/original/file-20190304-92292-atk8k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261953/original/file-20190304-92292-atk8k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261953/original/file-20190304-92292-atk8k3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">After the Trump administration took office, some pages on climate change, among other topics, were removed from the White House website.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation US</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Trump administration has, however, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/fueling-american-innovation-economic-growth-open-data/">recognized the value</a> of government data for driving innovation and economic growth, holding federal grantees accountable and improving the effectiveness of public services. </p>
<h2>Enter the OPEN Government Data Act</h2>
<p>The OPEN Government Data Act, <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/4174">signed into law on Jan. 14</a>, enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Congress and built directly on the Obama era agenda for openness. </p>
<p>Taking effect in January 2020, the act requires government agencies to make their data freely and publicly available in open formats and machine-readable, unless other considerations – such as intellectual property, privacy or national security concerns – indicate otherwise. </p>
<p>Agencies must also develop strategic plans for managing their data; develop a comprehensive and metadata-enriched inventory of their data, minus some national security-related data; and appoint a chief data officer to manage agency data and maximize its value to the government and the public. </p>
<p>In February, the White House issued America’s fourth <a href="https://open.usa.gov/assets/files/NAP4-fourth-open-government-national-action-plan.pdf">National Action Plan</a>. This plan echoes the OPEN Government Data Act and emphasizes the need to make federally funded science publicly available in the interest of economic growth, innovation and public health.</p>
<h2>A change in culture</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.federaltimes.com/it-networks/2019/02/07/what-comes-after-legally-mandated-open-data/">As Democratic Rep. Derek Kilmer of Washington said</a> in an interview to Federal Times, “Passing the OPEN Government Data Act was a big step, but it wasn’t the last step.” </p>
<p>While the law requires that all agencies designate a nonpolitical chief data officer, only a few agencies currently have filled this role. Even the existence of a data officer does not guarantee success; the key will be whether the data officers can build a robust agency culture of data sharing and openness.</p>
<p>“There’s, I think, naturally, a tendency within government or any other large institution to favor risk aversion and opacity,” Christian Troncoso, policy director at Business Software Alliance, <a href="https://www.fedscoop.com/future-open-government-data-act-relies-largely-cdos/">commented to Fedscoop.com</a>. “People take a sort of siloed view of what they’re working on and don’t necessarily appreciate the fact that the data they may be generating in the course of a project could also be helpful to their colleagues within the agency, certainly, but then to their colleagues across government as well.” </p>
<p>Several features of the act are designed to promote data sharing and best practices in data management. For example, the Office of Management and Budget must create guidance for agencies and a council of agency chief data officers, and collaborate with others to build an online repository of open data tools and standards. </p>
<p>But, in practice, the act may still leave significant room for agency discretion in judging data to be restricted or too costly or not worth making open. This could lead to serious gaps in open data. While open government data is a lofty goal, without coordinated implementation, it may suffer from unrealized potential.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261955/original/file-20190304-92286-oqmxgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261955/original/file-20190304-92286-oqmxgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261955/original/file-20190304-92286-oqmxgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261955/original/file-20190304-92286-oqmxgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261955/original/file-20190304-92286-oqmxgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261955/original/file-20190304-92286-oqmxgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261955/original/file-20190304-92286-oqmxgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261955/original/file-20190304-92286-oqmxgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Open data could lead to privacy issues, as shown in a 2014 study on New York City taxi data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/grand-central-along-42nd-street-traffic-102953573">dibrova/shutterstock.com</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Keeping data secure</h2>
<p>The OPEN Government Data Act requires agencies to walk a fine line between making data as open as possible, but as closed as necessary due to, for example, <a href="https://www.theagilityeffect.com/en/article/open-data-cyber-security-impossible-equation/">cybersecurity</a> concerns over sensitive information. </p>
<p>Federal law already limits some disclosures. For example, under <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/5215">the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act</a>, statistical agencies face strict rules for protecting personally identifiable information. Employees at agencies such as the Census Bureau face fines and potential jail time for improper disclosure of data. </p>
<p>Existing laws have contributed to a culture of withholding data when sensitive data are present within the data set. But the OPEN Act could lead to new tensions between openness and privacy, because expanding the universe of open data increases the risk that data that appear anonymized will become personally identifiable.</p>
<p>For example, in 2014, a London researcher <a href="https://skift.com/2014/04/16/london-transports-bike-share-privacy-slip-raises-concerns/">was able to trace an individual’s movements</a> from Transport for London’s open data. With just a little more information, the researcher claims he could have easily identified the individual. </p>
<p>In 2014, another group of researchers successfully <a href="https://research.neustar.biz/author/atockar/">deanonymized New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission data</a>. The researchers were able to track specific taxi medallion numbers and, in some cases, specific passenger trips. </p>
<p>While these instances were part of a small number of reported concerns, we are concerned how other data releases may lead to unintended consequences, such as open data being used to track the movements of individuals. Appropriately, the OPEN Government Data Act calls on OMB and agencies to consider the risks of reidentification from data pooling as they carry out their open data activities. </p>
<p>But, it seems to us that truly deidentifying data is an increasingly elusive goal. The act also requires agencies to collect and analyze information on how their data are being used. While this makes sense in the broader context of maximizing the usefulness of government data, it raises its own privacy issues. Implementation choices will be key – and the role of data officers will be critical.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111956/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth Cate received funding from The Privacy Projects in connection with the production of a chapter on the Supreme Court's information privacy jurisprudence, for inclusion in Bulk Surveillance: Systematic Government Access to Private Sector Data, James X. Dempsey and Fred H. Cate eds. (Oxford Univ. Press 2018). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anjanette Raymond and Scott Shackelford do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new act requires that all nonsensitive government data be made available publicly by January 2020. But the plan could open up new privacy issues.Anjanette Raymond, Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics; Director, Program on Data Management and Information Governance, Ostrom Workshop, Indiana UniversityBeth Cate, Clinical Associate Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana UniversityScott Shackelford, Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics; Director, Ostrom Workshop Program on Cybersecurity and Internet Governance; Cybersecurity Program Chair, IU-Bloomington, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1119522019-02-15T18:24:20Z2019-02-15T18:24:20ZSenate vote could end US complicity in the Saudi-led genocide in Yemen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259331/original/file-20190215-56215-kyv5id.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Severe malnutrition, like this Yemeni boy experienced, is one of the results of the Yemen conflict. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Yemen-Malnutrition/ab4969ee717245b8ac36b4dd034437c0/91/0">AP/Hani Mohammed</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. House of Representatives has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/us/politics/yemen-war-saudi-arabia.html">voted overwhelmingly</a> to pass legislation to deny further military assistance for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.</p>
<p>The bipartisan vote for the bill was a repudiation of the Obama and Trump administrations’ support for the Saudis and a war that many charge includes violations of human rights. A Saudi-led coalition of states has been <a href="https://www.cfr.org/interactives/global-conflict-tracker?marker=36#!/conflict/war-in-yemen">aggressively bombing Yemen</a> and imposing an air and naval blockade of its ports for more than three years, leading U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres <a href="https://www.unog.ch/unog/website/news_media.nsf/(httpNewsByYear_en)/27F6CCAD7178F3E9C1258264003311FA?OpenDocument">to describe</a> Yemen as “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”</p>
<p>The legislation now goes to the Senate. <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/429894-house-passes-bill-to-end-us-military-support-to-saudis-in-yemen">President Trump has said that he would veto</a> it if passed. </p>
<p>Guterres put the crisis in stark perspective, emphasizing the near complete lack of security for the Yemeni people. More than 22 million people out of a total population of 28 million are in need of humanitarian aid and protection. Eighteen million people lack reliable access to food; 8.4 million people “do not know how they will obtain their next meal.”</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.american.edu/sis/faculty/bachman.cfm">scholar of genocide and human rights</a>, I believe the destruction brought about by these attacks combined with the blockade amounts to genocide.</p>
<p>Based on my research, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2018.1539910">published online</a> by Third World Quarterly, I believe the coalition would not be capable of committing this crime without the material and logistical support of both the Obama and Trump administrations.</p>
<h2>A ‘storm’ recast as ‘hope’</h2>
<p>Yemen has been gripped by a civil war since 2015, pitting the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2017/12/18/who-are-the-houthis-and-why-are-we-at-war-with-them/">Shia Houthi movement</a> – which has fought for centuries for control of parts of Yemen – against <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29319423">a government backed by Sunni Saudi Arabia</a>. Because of these religious differences, it would be easy to recast what is largely a political conflict in Yemen as a sectarian one. </p>
<p>That characterization fits Saudi and U.S. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/houthis-deny-u-s-saudi-claim-that-they-are-irans-puppets">assertions</a> that the Houthis are controlled by Shiite Iran, a claim that has not gone <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/05/16/contrary-to-popular-belief-houthis-arent-iranian-proxies/?utm_term=.cc639b2c69c8">uncontested</a>. Both the Saudis and the U.S. are hostile to Iran, so U.S. support of Saudia Arabia in Yemen represents what U.S. administrations have said are strategic interests in the region.</p>
<p>Besides Saudi Arabia, the coalition attacking Yemen includes the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Kuwait and Bahrain. Qatar was part of the coalition but is no longer.</p>
<p>During the first three years of “Operation Decisive Storm,” later renamed “Operation Renewal of Hope,” 16,749 coalition air attacks in Yemen were documented by the <a href="http://yemendataproject.org/">Yemen Data Project</a>, which describes itself as an “independent data collection project aimed at collecting and disseminating data on the conduct of the war in Yemen.” </p>
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<p>Based on the information available to it using open sources, the Yemen Data Project reports that two-thirds of the coalition’s bombing attacks have been against nonmilitary and unknown targets. The coalition isn’t accidentally attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure – it’s doing it deliberately. </p>
<p>That’s evident from the kind – and volume – of civilian targets documented. They include places that are generally protected against attack even under the lax <a href="https://casebook.icrc.org/glossary/fundamental-principles-ihl">rules</a> of international humanitarian law: Residential areas, vehicles, marketplaces and mosques as well as boats, social gatherings and camps for internally displaced persons.</p>
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<p>Because of the role it plays in movement of people, food and medicine, Yemen’s transportation infrastructure is especially important. Airports, ports, bridges and roads have all been repeatedly attacked. </p>
<p>Yemen’s economic infrastructure – farms, private businesses and factories, oil and gas facilities, water and electricity lines and food storage – have also been hit. And the coalition has targeted and destroyed schools and medical facilities, too. </p>
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<p>Finally, Yemen’s cultural heritage has been attacked. In all, at least 78 cultural sites have been damaged or destroyed, including archaeological sites, museums, mosques, churches and tombs, as well as numerous other monuments and residences that have great historical and cultural significance.</p>
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<h2>How to make a crisis</h2>
<p>The attacks aren’t the only way the coalition is creating a massive humanitarian crisis.</p>
<p>The air and naval blockade, in effect since March 2015, “is essentially using the threat of starvation as a bargaining tool and an instrument of war,” <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/N1800513.pdf">according</a> to the U.N. panel of experts on Yemen.</p>
<p>The blockade stops and inspects vessels seeking entry to Yemen’s ports. That allows the coalition to regulate and restrict Yemenis’ access to food, fuel, medical supplies and humanitarian aid. </p>
<p>In his <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40802-017-0092-3">analysis of the blockade’s legality</a>, <a href="http://www.uva.nl/en/profile/f/i/m.d.fink/m.d.fink.html">Dutch military scholar Martin Fink</a> writes that the blockade means “massive time delays and uncertainty on what products would be allowed to enter.” </p>
<p>Despite U.N. efforts to alleviate some of the worst delays, imports are often held up for a long time. In some cases, food that makes it through the blockade has already spoiled, if entry is not denied altogether.</p>
<p>In some ways, the humanitarian crisis in Yemen is unprecedented and can be tied directly to the conflict. As the World Bank <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/376891524812213584/Securing-imports-of-essential-food-commodities-to-Yemen-an-assessment-of-constraints-and-options-for-intervention">notes</a>, “Yemen’s very difficult economic challenges before the current conflict cannot be compared to the intensely critical situation the country is facing today.” </p>
<p>Similarly, Tufts University scholar <a href="https://now.tufts.edu/articles/mass-starvation-political-weapon">Alex de Waal describes Yemen</a> as “the greatest famine atrocity of our lifetimes.” It was caused, writes de Waal, by the coalition “<a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Mass+Starvation%3A+The+History+and+Future+of+Famine-p-9781509524662">deliberately destroying the country’s food-producing infrastructure</a>.” </p>
<p>The failing security for the people of Yemen has been compounded by a failing health system. The World Health Organization reported in September 2017 that <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/response-plans/2017/yemen/en/">only 45 percent of health facilities in Yemen</a> were functional. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.unog.ch/unog/website/news_media.nsf/(httpNewsByYear_en)/27F6CCAD7178F3E9C1258264003311FA?OpenDocument">Secretary-General Guterres put it</a>, “Treatable illnesses become a death sentence when local health services are suspended and it is impossible to travel outside the country.”</p>
<p>As of February 2018, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22651&LangID=E">according</a> to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the coalition had killed 6,000 people in airstrikes and wounded nearly 10,000 more. </p>
<p>Yet, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights report, these counts are conservative. Tens of thousands of Yemenis have also died from causes related to the war. According to Save the Children, an <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/yemen-famine-children-deaths-1.4914179">estimated</a> 85,000 children under five may have died since 2015, with more than <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/opinion/yemen-al-hudaydah-famine-houthis.html">50,000 child deaths</a> in 2017 alone from hunger and related causes.</p>
<p>Coalition actions in Yemen amount to nothing short of what <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/coining-a-word-and-championing-a-cause-the-story-of-raphael-lemkin">Raphael Lemkin, the individual who coined the term “genocide</a>,” referred to as a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=bEcTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA147&lpg=PA147&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false">“synchronized attack on different aspects of life</a>.” </p>
<h2>The US contribution</h2>
<p>The coalition’s genocide in Yemen would not be possible without the complicity of the U.S. This has been a bipartisan presidential effort, covering both <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/25/statement-nsc-spokesperson-bernadette-meehan-situation-yemen">the Obama</a> and <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/12/trumps-one-step-back-on-yemen-wont-satisfy-critics/">Trump administrations</a>.</p>
<p>U.S. arms are being used to kill Yemenis and destroy their country. <a href="https://securityassistance.org/sites/default/files/US%20Arms%20Sales%202017%20Report.pdf">In 2016</a>, well after the coalition began its genocidal assault on Yemen, four of the top five recipients of U.S. arms sales were members of the coalition.</p>
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<p>The U.S. has also provided the coalition with logistical support, including mid-air refueling, targeting advice and support, intelligence, expedited munitions resupply and maintenance. </p>
<p>Other than the sale of arms, perhaps the most significant contribution to the coalition’s ability to commit genocide in Yemen has been the provision of fuel and midair refueling of coalition warplanes, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-to-end-refueling-for-saudi-coalition-aircraft-in-yemen/2018/11/09/d08ff6c3-babd-4958-bcca-cdb1caa9d5b4_story.html?utm_term=.b66185ea63b1">which was halted in early November 2018</a>. By the middle of 2017, the U.S. had delivered over 67 million pounds of fuel to the coalition and refueled coalition aircraft more than 9,000 times. </p>
<h2>Shared responsibility for genocide</h2>
<p>As a genocide scholar, I believe that under <a href="http://legal.un.org/legislativeseries/documents/Book25/Book25.pdf">international law</a>, the U.S. shares responsibility with the coalition for genocide in Yemen. </p>
<p>What does this mean? It means that the U.S. must cease and desist all activities that facilitate genocide in Yemen. This would include stopping all sales of weapons and ending logistical support for coalition action. The legislation passed by the House would largely accomplish this, though the House bill would allow intelligence sharing with Saudi Arabia to continue when “appropriate in the national security interest of the United States.” </p>
<p>However, even if the Senate passes it, the president’s likely veto of the bill will mean no change in the deadly status quo unless the legislation garners enough support to override a presidential veto. </p>
<p>In an ideal world, one in which all states are equally subjects before international law, the U.S. would also seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice regarding what restitution it owes the people of Yemen for its role in the coalition’s genocide. </p>
<p>Similarly, the U.S. would request an International Criminal Court investigation into individual culpability of U.S. officials in both the Obama and Trump administrations for their role in facilitating the crimes committed in Yemen. </p>
<p>Of course, this is not an ideal world. </p>
<p>The U.S. recognizes neither the International Court of Justice’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/19/world/text-of-us-statement-on-withdrawal-from-case-before-the-world-court.html">authority</a> to judge the legality of its actions, nor the International Criminal Court’s <a href="https://intpolicydigest.org/2018/06/15/on-the-failed-authority-of-the-international-criminal-court/">authority</a> to investigate the suspected criminal acts of individual U.S. officials. Such an investigation could be triggered by a U.N. Security Council referral, but the U.S. would simply veto any such effort.</p>
<p>All that is left, then, is for the people of the U.S. to hold their own to account for the crimes committed in their names.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-complicity-in-the-saudi-led-genocide-in-yemen-spans-obama-trump-administrations-106896">an article</a> originally published on November 26, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeff Bachman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The US has supported a Saudi-led military coalition that has inflicted profound and deadly damage on Yemen. A Senate vote could end what a human rights scholar says is US complicity in genocide.Jeff Bachman, Professorial Lecturer in Human Rights; Director, Ethics, Peace, and Human Rights MA Program, American University School of International ServiceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1115772019-02-15T11:50:21Z2019-02-15T11:50:21ZWhat Green New Deal advocates can learn from the 2009 economic stimulus act<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258862/original/file-20190213-181615-3io8o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Assembling capacitors for electric automobiles at SBE, Inc. in Barre, Vermont, July 16, 2010. SBE received a $9 million stimulus grant to build electric drive components.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Electric-Cars/e07f4868a9d746568069ebf03f9235fd/117/0">AP Photo/Toby Talbot</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Congressional Democrats have introduced a “Green New Deal” proposal that calls for a 10-year national mobilization to curb climate change by shifting the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels. Many progressives <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2018/12/19/the-energy-202-lots-of-people-support-the-green-new-deal-so-what-is-it/5c1944641b326b2d6629d4e8/?utm_term=.0e1f410bb293">support this idea</a>, while skeptics argue that a decade is <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/02/07/692466412/former-energy-secretary-weighs-in-on-green-new-deal-legislation">not long enough</a> to remake our nation’s energy system.</p>
<p>The closest analog to this effort occurred in 2009, when President Obama and Congress worked together to combat a severe economic recession by passing a massive economic stimulus plan. Among its many provisions, the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/111/plaws/publ5/PLAW-111publ5.pdf">American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009</a> provided US$90 billion to promote clean energy. The bil’s clean energy package, which was dubbed the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/opinion/18wed1.html">biggest energy bill in history</a>,” laid the foundation for dramatic changes to the energy system over the last 10 years.</p>
<p>I am an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=eaVRMK0AAAAJ&hl=en">environmental economist</a> and worked with Congress as a member of the Obama presidential transition team to negotiate the energy package. Then I oversaw its implementation as a White House official in 2009-2010. Based on my experience, I believe this effort holds several key lessons for a Green New Deal and other policies the new Congress will consider.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258863/original/file-20190213-181609-830d2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258863/original/file-20190213-181609-830d2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258863/original/file-20190213-181609-830d2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258863/original/file-20190213-181609-830d2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258863/original/file-20190213-181609-830d2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258863/original/file-20190213-181609-830d2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258863/original/file-20190213-181609-830d2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258863/original/file-20190213-181609-830d2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">President Obama signs the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Feb. 17, 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barack_Obama_signs_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009_on_February_17.jpg">Pete Souza</a></span>
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<h2>A lower-carbon economy</h2>
<p>The 2009 Recovery Act focused on <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/7rehl5s9iovuaeb/Aldy%20REEP%202013.pdf?dl=0">four major categories of energy-related investments</a>: Energy efficiency, the electric grid, transportation and clean energy. Major targets included about $25 billion to promote renewable electricity generation through investment grants, production tax credits and loan guarantees. Another $20 billion funded energy efficiency and conservation through tax credits, rebates and block grants to state and local governments. </p>
<p>About $10 billion supported investments in smart electric meter and smart grid technology and long-distance transmission lines. The bill provided $5 billion for advanced vehicle technologies, such as electric battery manufacturing subsidies and heavy-duty diesel retrofits. It also included $2 billion to develop carbon capture and storage technologies for coal-fired power plants.</p>
<p>These investments catalyzed rapid growth in renewable power. Since 2008, <a href="https://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/html/epa_04_02_b.html">wind power has more than tripled and solar power has increased 80-fold</a>. This wind and solar investment significantly outpaced <a href="https://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/html/epa_04_02_a.html">new investment in natural gas power plants</a> over the past decade. </p>
<p>The largest years of wind power investment occurred in 2009 and 2012 – the first and last years of Recovery Act support. More recent growth in solar across the country, as utilities and homeowners alike have adopted it, reflects significant drops in the cost of solar panels, which were enabled by <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/pxoltsqo4a9qw63/GERARDEN-DISSERTATION-2018.pdf?dl=0">generous investment subsidies in previous years</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258866/original/file-20190213-181599-c3fzy2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258866/original/file-20190213-181599-c3fzy2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/258866/original/file-20190213-181599-c3fzy2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258866/original/file-20190213-181599-c3fzy2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258866/original/file-20190213-181599-c3fzy2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=287&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258866/original/file-20190213-181599-c3fzy2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258866/original/file-20190213-181599-c3fzy2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/258866/original/file-20190213-181599-c3fzy2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In March 2017, monthly electricity generation from wind and solar power exceeded 10 percent of total electricity generation in the United States for the first time.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This renewable energy surge has played a key role in cutting carbon dioxide emissions from the U.S. electric power sector by <a href="https://www.eia.gov/environment/emissions/carbon/pdf/2017_co2analysis.pdf">28 percent</a> since 2005. In 2017, renewable power and power from cheap natural gas were <a href="https://www.eia.gov/environment/emissions/carbon/pdf/2017_co2analysis.pdf">nearly equally responsible</a> for these emission reductions.</p>
<p>Even though the U.S. population has grown about 8 percent and our nation’s gross domestic product has risen more than 20 percent since 2008, residential electricity consumption was <a href="https://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/html/epa_02_02.html">lower in 2017 than in 2008</a>. This decrease reflects long-term energy savings benefits from Recovery Act investments in high-performance windows, insulation, high-efficiency furnaces and water heaters and advanced lighting. Electric vehicles make up a <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/us-electric-vehicle-sales-increase-by-81-in-2018#gs.kNYYsBvH">growing share of the U.S. car market</a> which was aided by Recovery Act investments in advanced battery manufacturing facilities.</p>
<h2>High-profile setbacks</h2>
<p>Not all programs yielded such impressive returns. Although the federal government invested $2 billion in <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/clean-coal-power-plant-killed-again/">FutureGen</a>, a decade-long effort to capture carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants and store them underground, this effort failed to attract enough cost-matching investments from private utilities. As a result, it never moved forward to test carbon capture and storage at commercial scale. </p>
<p>The Department of Energy <a href="https://www.energy.gov/lpo/portfolio/portfolio-projects">Loan Guarantee Program</a> awarded about $2 billion to guarantee $16 billion in loans at 25 companies investing in solar, wind and geothermal power and clean energy manufacturing projects. It produced a small pipeline of innovative energy projects and <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/cjfdtv91jxh9bgj/POTUS%20DOE%20LGP%20Oct%2025%202010%20Memo.pdf?dl=0">imposed burdensome requirements that undermined its effectiveness</a>. Ultimately the program became a political liability when Solyndra, a solar panel manufacturer, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2014/11/13/363572151/after-solyndra-loss-u-s-energy-loan-program-turning-a-profit">defaulted on a federally guaranteed $535 million loan</a>. </p>
<h2>Lessons for a Green New Deal</h2>
<p>This record offers valuable lessons for policymakers who want to catalyze further progress toward a clean energy economy. Critically, the main reason to spend public money in the energy sector is to drive changes in investment. Businesses already have plenty of incentive to invest in energy; the challenge is getting them to invest in socially preferred areas, such as lower-carbon energy sources.</p>
<p>Taxpayer dollars are limited, so well-designed policies should deliver results at the lowest possible cost. The Obama administration needed to implement the Recovery Act quickly in 2009 because the economy was in a tailspin, so some energy stimulus programs failed this test by awarding subsidies that didn’t do much to change household and business energy choices (although they delivered economic stimulus). For example, about 90 percent of families that received rebates for buying EnergyStar-rated refrigerators likely would have done so <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/9gysfmwwsmfkmz5/Houde%20and%20Aldy%20AEJ-Policy%202017.pdf?dl=0">without the Recovery Act appliance rebate program</a>.</p>
<p>Another key lesson is that when policies are designed to be simple and transparent, it is easier for businesses and households to understand them. Complex, opaque processes create opportunities for crony capitalism that may undermine program goals and attract political criticism. Solyndra’s default led to a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2015/08/26/top-leaders-of-solyndra-solar-panel-company-repeatedly-misled-federal-officials-investigation-finds/?utm_term=.103fff14b369">four-year federal investigation</a> and charges of political favoritism in awarding the loan guarantee.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W02-XaAlsZo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Congressional and FBI investigations into the Obama administration’s support for Solyndra provided ammunition for critics of energy stimulus investments.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, with the emergence of big data and advances in analytical methods, managers can design and implement programs in ways that make it easier to measure their performance. Designing such reviews at the start would facilitate low-cost evaluation after programs go into effect. The need for speed during the Great Recession precluded such planning, but the next stage of clean energy policies can be designed to enable this kind of learning, which can then inform thoughtful policy updates and reforms.</p>
<p>Finally, the Obama administration saw government spending on clean energy as a complement and stepping stone for a more ambitious, economy-wide carbon pricing policy. In 2009 <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/video/EVR022409#transcript">President Obama supported a cap-and-trade program</a> to cover America’s carbon dioxide emissions. More recently, some experts have called for <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-the-right-guiding-principles-carbon-taxes-can-work-109328">carbon taxes</a> to drive deep, cost-effective greenhouse gas emission reductions. </p>
<p>Just as we economists believed in 2009 that an economy-wide market-based approach would be the most effective way to combat climate change, <a href="https://www.clcouncil.org/economists-statement/">it still holds true today</a>. The Green New Deal resolution does not address carbon pricing, but I believe that an ambitious carbon tax could promote broad and deep economy-wide emission reductions today and the far-reaching innovation necessary to transform the energy foundation of the U.S. economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111577/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Aldy receives or has received funding related to the topics addressed in this article from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, BP, the Progressive Policy Institute, Resources for the Future, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Aldy also has affiliations with Resources for the Future, the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. </span></em></p>An Obama administration veteran offers some insights from his experience about driving massive increases in clean energy.Joseph Aldy, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1079252018-12-06T11:43:17Z2018-12-06T11:43:17ZThe John Birch Society is still influencing American politics, 60 years after its founding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248932/original/file-20181205-186073-uqmsin.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some of the far-right group's staff in 1976</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-MA-USA-APHS445023-John-Birch-Society/29523c1a34c34854a3200de3c9b92f6a/5/0">AP Photo/J. Walter Green</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The retired candy entrepreneur <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/john-birch-society-founded">Robert Welch</a> founded the John Birch Society 60 years ago to push back against what he perceived as a growing American welfare state modeled on communism and the federal government’s push to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10570317109373675">desegregate America</a>.</p>
<p>Although Welch’s group has never amassed more than <a href="https://archive.org/stream/JohnBirchSociety/JBS-Boston-5_djvu.txt">100,000 dues-paying members</a>, it had garnered an estimated <a href="https://archive.org/stream/radicalrightthen010584mbp/radicalrightthen010584mbp_djvu.txt">4 to 6 million sympathizers</a> within four years of its 1958 formation.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248930/original/file-20181205-100847-1pvkh2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Robert Welch in 1961.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-United-States-ROBERT-WELCH/cedfb37c97e5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/3/0">AP Photo</a></span>
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<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vY5u6FMAAAAJ&hl=en&authuser=1&oi=ao">scholar of political history and social movements</a>, I find many parallels between today’s far right and its predecessors. Just as the John Birch Society emerged in the midst of the civil rights movement, today’s far-right movements formed as a reaction to the election of Barack Obama – a milestone for racial equality. </p>
<h2>The Birchers</h2>
<p>The original “<a href="https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Bircher">Birchers</a>,” as John Birch Society supporters are known, were Republicans who believed their party had grown too moderate. <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-goldwater-can-win-the-gop-nomination-why-not-trump-46981">Like the tea party movement</a> that arose half a century later while the nation debated expanding health care coverage, same-sex marriage and immigration reform, they objected to the federal government’s growth, and ardently opposed federal intervention into what they considered to be state and local affairs.</p>
<p>Birchers expressed a belief in domestic communist conspiracies. They went so far as to accuse <a href="https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2015/12/09/roots-of-the-john-birch-society">President Dwight Eisenhower and Chief Justice Earl Warren</a> of being communist dupes and agents – building on the legacy of <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/senator-who-stood-joseph-mccarthy-when-no-one-else-would-180970279/">Sen. Joseph McCarthy</a> whose movement of <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/intellectuals-and-mccarthy">predominantly Midwestern Republicans</a> found the society’s agenda appealing.</p>
<p>Although these allegations relegated Welch to <a href="https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2017/04/rise-fall-john-birch-society-50-years-ago/">fringe status</a> as a <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP75-00149R000800170140-4.pdf">political leader</a>, the John Birch Society amassed a national base <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10488.html">among staunch conservatives</a>. </p>
<p>In their heyday, <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/american-right-wing-readings-in-political-behavior/oclc/551652136">far-right groups</a> that subscribed to “Welchian” conspiracy theories propagated their views on over 500 radio broadcasts each week – with the John Birch Society alone producing a program on <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/the-john-birch-society-4158089">100 stations</a> – and a widely circulated newsletter.</p>
<p>A string of <a href="https://archive.org/details/JBSCATALOG1968">Birch bookstores</a> doubled as <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/radical-right-report-on-the-john-birch-society-and-its-allies/oclc/1011698075&referer=brief_results">local headquarters</a> for meetings and distribution centers for fliers, films, rally tickets and bumper stickers, spread its influence.</p>
<p>Even though Welch understood racism and bigotry would <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/radical-right/oclc/1005226239&referer=brief_results">hurt his cause</a>, the John Birch Society’s opposition to the civil rights movement attracted Americans sympathetic to racist paranoia. For example, it consistently published reports accusing civil rights leaders of communist subversion and alleging that people of color were plotting to divide the country and control the world.</p>
<p>In 1964, backing from the John Birch Society in Republican primaries, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10488.html">such as California</a>, secured the right-wing-backed candidate Barry Goldwater’s Republican presidential nomination.</p>
<p>“All those little old ladies in tennis shoes that you called right-wing nuts and kooks,” <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/goldwater-coalition-republican-strategies-in-1964/oclc/227624">Goldwater’s organizational head</a> reportedly told him about the campaign volunteers who appeared to be Birch sympathizers, “they’re the best volunteer political organization that’s ever been put together.” </p>
<p>Despite Goldwater’s loss to incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson in a landslide, many <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/barry-goldwater-lasting-legacy-112210">political scientists</a> and <a href="https://www.heritage.org/political-process/report/barry-m-goldwater-the-most-consequential-loser-american-politics">conservatives</a> believe that Goldwater’s failed bid made way for the modern conservative movement by <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8044.html">passing the torch</a> to Richard M. Nixon’s “silent majority,” ending decades of liberal dominance.</p>
<h2>Contemporary counterparts</h2>
<p>The John Birch Society is also directly linked to conservative politics today.</p>
<p>Most notably, Fred Koch, the father of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/4/14/11348780/gop-megadonors-koch-brothers">David and Charles Koch</a>, was among the Birch Society’s first 11 members and its main <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/4/14/11348780/gop-megadonors-koch-brothers">financial backers</a>. The billionaire Koch brothers have pumped massive amounts of money into <a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2012/05/30/the-battle-for-cato/">libertarian causes</a> and <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=d000000186">conservative political campaigns</a> for decades.</p>
<p>As investigative journalist Jane Mayer explains in her book “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/215462/dark-money-by-jane-mayer/9780307947901/">Dark Money</a>,” Fred Koch strongly encouraged his sons to follow in his political footsteps, something <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/05/koch-brothers-family-history-sons-of-wichita/">Charles and David did</a> in general. For a time, both brothers belonged to the Birch Society, but they had <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/charles-koch-political-ascent-jane-mayer-213541">moved on by the 1970s</a>.</p>
<p>Additionally, in their exhaustive examination of the tea party movement, political scientists <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/9954.html">Christopher Parker and Matt Barreto</a> argue that Obama’s election instigated the rise of today’s far right. Much like how the John Birch Society arose as a rejection of progress on civil rights, tea party supporters felt anxious about what they saw as the “real” America slipping away when the country chose a black man to be its president.</p>
<p>Just as Birchers called Justice Warren a communist for overruling state and local segregation laws, the tea party <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124359632">labeled President Obama a socialist</a> because of his plan to expand health insurance coverage. And, similar to Birch Society claims that the civil rights movement was a treasonous ploy to divide the country, Trump and his surrogates paint the <a href="http://theconversation.com/the-backlash-against-black-lives-matter-is-just-more-evidence-of-injustice-85587">Black Lives Matter movement</a> as a force working toward the collapse of social order.</p>
<p>Moreover, in 2017, as the Trump administration got underway, violent incidents involving <a href="https://theconversation.com/charlottesville-a-step-in-our-long-arc-toward-justice-82880">white supremacists</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/pittsburghs-lesson-hatred-does-not-emerge-in-a-vacuum-105952">mass shootings</a> were becoming more common. Yet, Jeff Sessions, Trump’s attorney general at that time, tasked the FBI with compiling a report on so-called “<a href="http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/356016-aclu-files-request-for-fbi-to-release-surveillance-documents-of">black identity extremists</a>” with the “<a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/testimony-congressional-black-caucus-fbis-report-black-identity-extremism">potential to incite irrational police fear of black activists</a>.”</p>
<h2>Donald Trump</h2>
<p>From the start, Trump’s incessant and loud questions about whether <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/29/politics/trump-president-birth-certificate/index.html">Obama was born in the U.S.</a> and his <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-37230916/drug-dealers-criminals-rapists-what-trump-thinks-of-mexicans">attacks on immigrants</a> <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/university-press/book/9780826519818">echoed the Birch Society’s</a> obsessions. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248934/original/file-20181205-186079-dhbe5v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Tea party protest in 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Obama-Pa-Protest/ff9d5d8511b84179aae6a1d5a2586a5a/20/0">AP Photo/Mark Stehle</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By openly courting voters who had been <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/401820-what-happened-to-the-tea-party">tea party supporters</a>, Trump mobilized enough of the Americans who were anxious about their country’s future to make it to the White House.</p>
<p>Since taking office, Trump’s far-right supporters have tolerated his efforts to delegitimize many political institutions, including <a href="https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/407440-read-president-trumps-exclusive-interview-with-hilltv">the intelligence community</a> and <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/his-own-words-presidents-attacks-courts">the judiciary</a> – taking after the reactionary right 60 years earlier. By abandoning a traditionally conservative need for institutional stability, I believe that Trump echoes the John Birch Society’s willingness to oppose uncomfortable change in society at any cost.</p>
<p>Today, while much of the John Birch Society exists online and through its bimonthly magazine, <a href="https://www.thenewamerican.com/">The New American</a>, some conservatives are trying to reboot <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/16/the-john-birch-society-is-alive-and-well-in-the-lone-star-state-215377">local chapters</a> of the <a href="https://smallbusiness.chron.com/difference-between-nonprofit-corporation-501c3-59719.html">nonprofit corporation</a>. </p>
<p>The society, which <a href="https://www.jbs.org/about-jbs/press-room">does not divulge</a> how many current dues-paying members it has, maintains it is not a political, but rather an educational organization. However, it <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2011/02/04/John-Birch-Society-welcomes-newcomer-tea-party/stories/201102040392">welcomed the tea party with open arms in 2011</a>.</p>
<p>And, <a href="https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/24899-exclusive-interview-with-john-birch-society-ceo">in a 2016 interview</a>, the group’s CEO argued that Trump “captured” a movement built on the political causes the Birch Society had championed for decades.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107925/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Towler previously received funding as a Ford Foundation Fellow. </span></em></p>It planted the seeds of the tea party and the Trump administration.Christopher Towler, Assistant Professor of Political Science, California State University, SacramentoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1068962018-11-26T11:36:31Z2018-11-26T11:36:31ZUS complicity in the Saudi-led genocide in Yemen spans Obama, Trump administrations<p>A Saudi-led coalition of states has been <a href="https://www.cfr.org/interactives/global-conflict-tracker?marker=36#!/conflict/war-in-yemen">aggressively bombing Yemen</a> and imposing an air and naval blockade of its ports for more than three years, leading UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres <a href="https://www.unog.ch/unog/website/news_media.nsf/(httpNewsByYear_en)/27F6CCAD7178F3E9C1258264003311FA?OpenDocument">to describe</a> Yemen as “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”</p>
<p>Guterres put the crisis in stark perspective, emphasizing the near complete lack of security for the Yemeni people. More than 22 million people out of a total population of 28 million are in need of humanitarian aid and protection. Eighteen million people lack reliable access to food; 8.4 million people “do not know how they will obtain their next meal.”</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.american.edu/sis/faculty/bachman.cfm">scholar of genocide and human rights</a>, I believe the destruction brought about by these attacks combined with the blockade amounts to genocide.</p>
<p>Based on my research, to be published in an upcoming issue of Third World Quarterly, I believe the coalition would not be capable of committing this crime without the material and logistical support of both the Obama and Trump administrations.</p>
<h2>A ‘storm’ recast as ‘hope’</h2>
<p>Yemen has been gripped by a civil war since 2015, pitting the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2017/12/18/who-are-the-houthis-and-why-are-we-at-war-with-them/">Shia Houthi movement</a> – which has fought for centuries for control of parts of Yemen – against <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29319423">a government backed by Sunni Saudi Arabia</a>. Because of these religious differences, it would be easy to recast what is largely a political conflict in Yemen as a sectarian one. </p>
<p>That characterization fits Saudi and U.S. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/houthis-deny-u-s-saudi-claim-that-they-are-irans-puppets">assertions</a> that the Houthis are controlled by Shiite Iran, a claim that has not gone <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/05/16/contrary-to-popular-belief-houthis-arent-iranian-proxies/?utm_term=.cc639b2c69c8">uncontested</a>. Both the Saudis and the U.S. are hostile to Iran, so U.S. support of Saudia Arabia in Yemen represents what U.S. administrations have said are strategic interests in the region.</p>
<p>Besides Saudi Arabia, the coalition attacking Yemen includes the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, Kuwait and Bahrain. Qatar was part of the coalition but is no longer.</p>
<p>During the first three years of “Operation Decisive Storm,” later renamed “Operation Renewal of Hope,” 16,749 coalition air attacks in Yemen were documented by the <a href="http://yemendataproject.org/">Yemen Data Project (YDP)</a>, which describes itself as an “independent data collection project aimed at collecting and disseminating data on the conduct of the war in Yemen.” </p>
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<p>Based on the information available to it using open sources, YDP reports that two-thirds of the coalition’s bombing attacks have been against non-military and unknown targets. The coalition isn’t accidentally attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure – it’s doing it deliberately. </p>
<p>That’s evident from the kind – and volume – of civilian targets documented. They include places that are generally protected against attack even under the lax <a href="https://casebook.icrc.org/glossary/fundamental-principles-ihl">rules</a> of international humanitarian law: Residential areas, vehicles, marketplaces and mosques as well as boats, social gatherings and camps for internally displaced persons.</p>
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<p>Because of the role it plays in movement of people, food and medicine, Yemen’s transportation infrastructure is especially important. Airports, ports, bridges and roads have all been repeatedly attacked. </p>
<p>Yemen’s economic infrastructure – farms, private businesses and factories, oil and gas facilities, water and electricity lines and food storage – have also been hit. And the coalition has targeted and destroyed schools and medical facilities, too. </p>
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<p>Finally, Yemen’s cultural heritage has been attacked. In all, at least 78 cultural sites have been damaged or destroyed, including archaeological sites, museums, mosques, churches and tombs, as well as numerous other monuments and residences that have great historical and cultural significance.</p>
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<h2>How to make a crisis</h2>
<p>The attacks aren’t the only way the coalition is creating a massive humanitarian crisis.</p>
<p>The air and naval blockade, in effect since March 2015, “is essentially using the threat of starvation as a bargaining tool and an instrument of war,” <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/N1800513.pdf">according</a> to the UN panel of experts on Yemen.</p>
<p>The blockade stops and inspects vessels seeking entry to Yemen’s ports. That allows the coalition to regulate and restrict Yemenis’ access to food, fuel, medical supplies and humanitarian aid. </p>
<p>In his <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40802-017-0092-3">analysis of the blockade’s legality</a>, <a href="http://www.uva.nl/en/profile/f/i/m.d.fink/m.d.fink.html">Dutch military scholar Martin Fink</a> writes that the blockade means “massive time delays and uncertainty on what products would be allowed to enter.” </p>
<p>Despite UN efforts to alleviate some of the worst delays, imports are often held up for a long time. In some cases, food that makes it through the blockade has already spoiled, if entry is not denied altogether.</p>
<p>In some ways, the humanitarian crisis in Yemen is unprecedented and can be tied directly to the conflict. As the World Bank <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/376891524812213584/Securing-imports-of-essential-food-commodities-to-Yemen-an-assessment-of-constraints-and-options-for-intervention">notes</a>, “Yemen’s very difficult economic challenges before the current conflict cannot be compared to the intensely critical situation the country is facing today.” </p>
<p>Similarly, Tufts University scholar <a href="https://now.tufts.edu/articles/mass-starvation-political-weapon">Alex de Waal describes Yemen</a> as “the greatest famine atrocity of our lifetimes.” It was caused, writes de Waal, by the coalition “<a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Mass+Starvation%3A+The+History+and+Future+of+Famine-p-9781509524662">deliberately destroying the country’s food-producing infrastructure</a>.” </p>
<p>The failing security for the people of Yemen has been compounded by a failing health system. The World Health Organization reported in September 2017 that <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/response-plans/2017/yemen/en/">only 45 percent of health facilities in Yemen</a> were functional. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.unog.ch/unog/website/news_media.nsf/(httpNewsByYear_en)/27F6CCAD7178F3E9C1258264003311FA?OpenDocument">Secretary-General Guterres put it</a>, “Treatable illnesses become a death sentence when local health services are suspended and it is impossible to travel outside the country.”</p>
<p>As of February 2018, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22651&LangID=E">according</a> to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the coalition had killed 6,000 people in airstrikes and wounded nearly 10,000 more. </p>
<p>Yet, according to the OHCHR report, these counts are conservative. Tens of thousands of Yemenis have also died from causes related to the war. According to Save the Children, an <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/yemen-famine-children-deaths-1.4914179">estimated</a> 85,000 children under five may have died since 2015, with more than <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/opinion/yemen-al-hudaydah-famine-houthis.html">50,000 child deaths</a> in 2017 alone from hunger and related causes.</p>
<p>Coalition actions in Yemen amount to nothing short of what <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/coining-a-word-and-championing-a-cause-the-story-of-raphael-lemkin">Raphael Lemkin, the individual who coined the term “genocide</a>,” referred to as a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=bEcTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA147&lpg=PA147&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false">“synchronized attack on different aspects of life</a>.” </p>
<h2>The US contribution</h2>
<p>The coalition’s genocide in Yemen would not be possible without the complicity of the U.S. This has been a bipartisan presidential effort, covering both <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/25/statement-nsc-spokesperson-bernadette-meehan-situation-yemen">the Obama</a> and <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/12/trumps-one-step-back-on-yemen-wont-satisfy-critics/">Trump administrations</a>.</p>
<p>U.S. arms are being used to kill Yemenis and destroy their country. <a href="https://www.ciponline.org/images/uploads/actions/MAR_6--US_Arms_Sales_2017_Report_manual_footnotes_%281%29_1.pdf">In 2016</a>, well after the coalition began its genocidal assault on Yemen, four of the top five recipients of U.S. arms sales were members of the coalition.</p>
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<p>The U.S. has also provided the coalition with logistical support, including mid-air refueling, targeting advice and support, intelligence, expedited munitions resupply and maintenance. </p>
<p>Other than the sale of arms, perhaps the most significant contribution to the coalition’s ability to commit genocide in Yemen has been the provision of fuel and mid-air refueling of Coalition warplanes, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-to-end-refueling-for-saudi-coalition-aircraft-in-yemen/2018/11/09/d08ff6c3-babd-4958-bcca-cdb1caa9d5b4_story.html?utm_term=.b66185ea63b1">which was halted in early November, 2018</a>. By the middle of 2017, the U.S. had delivered over 67 million pounds of fuel to the coalition and refueled coalition aircraft more than 9,000 times. </p>
<h2>Shared responsibility for genocide</h2>
<p>As a genocide scholar, I believe that under <a href="http://legal.un.org/legislativeseries/documents/Book25/Book25.pdf">international law</a>, the U.S. shares responsibility with the Coalition for genocide in Yemen. </p>
<p>What does this mean? It means that the U.S. must cease and desist all activities that facilitate genocide in Yemen. This would include stopping all sales of weapons and ending logistical support for Coalition action.</p>
<p>In an ideal world, one in which all states are equally subjects before international law, the U.S. would also seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice regarding what restitution it owes the people of Yemen for its role in the coalition’s genocide. </p>
<p>Similarly, the U.S. would request an International Criminal Court investigation into individual culpability of U.S. officials in both the Obama and Trump administrations for their role in facilitating the crimes committed in Yemen. </p>
<p>Of course, this is not an ideal world. </p>
<p>The U.S. recognizes neither the International Court of Justice’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/19/world/text-of-us-statement-on-withdrawal-from-case-before-the-world-court.html">authority</a> to judge the legality of its actions, nor the International Criminal Court’s <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/human_rights_vol30_2003/winter2003/irr_hr_winter03_usopposition/">authority</a> to investigate the suspected criminal acts of individual U.S. officials. Such an investigation could be triggered by a UN Security Council referral, but the U.S. would simply veto any such effort.</p>
<p>All that is left, then, is for the people of the U.S. to hold their own to account for the crimes committed in their names.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106896/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeff Bachman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Obama and Trump administrations have supported a military coalition that has inflicted profound and deadly damage on Yemen. A human rights scholar says the US is complicit in genocide.Jeff Bachman, Professorial Lecturer in Human Rights; Director, Ethics, Peace, and Human Rights MA Program, American University School of International ServiceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1052772018-10-23T10:44:09Z2018-10-23T10:44:09ZThese kids and young adults want their day in court on climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241740/original/file-20181022-105776-16faksp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young people will spend more years living with the consequences of climate policies than their elders.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://t.co/5SAiSqtOiV">Robin Loznak, courtesy of Our Children's Trust</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Humanity must rapidly decrease greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic levels of global warming, <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/news_and_events/30years.shtml">climate scientists</a> have warned for decades. But America’s president has both feet on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report">fossil fuel accelerator</a>.</p>
<p>One way to force President Donald Trump to put the brakes on his dangerous “<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-energy-dominance-the-right-goal-for-us-policy-79825">energy-dominance</a>” policy is a lawsuit filed on behalf of 21 young people. Using a <a href="http://climatecasechart.com/case/juliana-v-united-states/">barrage of legal motions</a>, the administration’s lawyers are scrambling to keep this case, known as Juliana v. United States, from going to trial.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://law.uoregon.edu/explore/mary-wood">environmental law</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5fHeakAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">professors</a>, we have <a href="http://www.aulawreview.org/no-ordinary-lawsuit-climate-change-due-process-and-the-public-trust-doctrine/">written</a> about this remarkable case and are teaching our students about it. This case positions the climate crisis squarely in the realm of fundamental civil rights jurisprudence, where we believe it belongs. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Our Children’s Trust plaintiff Aji Piper gave a TED talk in which he explains why he and 20 other young people are suing the federal government over climate change.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>A long time coming</h2>
<p>Spearheaded by <a href="https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/">Our Children’s Trust</a>, a nonprofit, this lawsuit is pending in a federal court in Oregon. It challenges U.S. energy policies on the basis that they are destabilizing the climate and violating established constitutional rights to personal security. The case originally took aim at the Obama administration when lawyers <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09022017/climate-change-lawsuit-donald-trump-children">first filed the case in 2015</a>. It now targets the Trump administration. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.youthvgov.org/meet-the-youth/">The 21 youth plaintiffs</a>, who currently range in age from 11 to 22 years old, are seeking to require the federal defendants to prepare and implement an enforceable <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/reel.12248">national remedial plan</a> to phase out the excessive greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. </p>
<p>The district court in Oregon issued a <a href="http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/case-documents/2018/20181015_docket-615-cv-1517_opinion-and-order.pdf">decision</a> reaffirming the case’s core <a href="http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/case-documents/2015/20150910_docket-615-cv-1517_complaint.pdf">claims</a> on Oct. 15. </p>
<p>Currently, the fate of this case hangs in the balance due to a motion to <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/news/articles/2018-10-19/us-tries-to-stop-youth-climate-lawsuit-days-before-trial">stop the proceedings</a>, filed by Justice Department lawyers in the U.S. Supreme Court just 11 days before the trial was scheduled to begin on Oct. 29. The <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/07/supreme-court-says-kids-can-sue-trump-over-climate-change/">Supreme Court</a> had refused the Trump administration’s prior effort to throw out the lawsuit in July 2018. This time, the court <a href="https://www.apnews.com/da345dcfc68842e59147cc4bf1613e6f">temporarily put the trial on hold</a> the next day. </p>
<p><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/332/2018.10.22.SCOTUS_Brief_FINAL_for_filing.pdf?1540238023">Attorneys for the youth plaintiffs</a> have since filed a response with the Supreme Court to this <a href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/10/06/trump-administration-kids-climate-case/">latest of many attempts by Justice Department lawyers</a> to stop the climate trial from going forward. </p>
<p>But the trial is <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5bd286c44785d33e125cbdff/1540523717271/2018.10.25+Media+Advisory+for+Oct+29.pdf">now in limbo</a> pending a Supreme Court order on the petition. </p>
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<h2>Civil and constitutional rights</h2>
<p>Should the Juliana case succeed, there would be a court-supervised federal plan to shrink the nation’s carbon footprint at a rate necessary to stave off <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/07/world/climate-change-new-ipcc-report-wxc/index.html">disastrous levels of climate change</a>.</p>
<p>Environmental lawsuits <a href="https://billmoyers.com/2014/09/19/natures-trust-new-approach-environmental-law/">typically rely</a> on statutes or regulations. But Juliana is a civil rights case. It bores down to legal bedrock by asserting that people have constitutional rights to inherit a stable climate system capable of sustaining human lives and liberties.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.aulawreview.org/no-ordinary-lawsuit-the-public-trust-and-the-duty-to-confront-climate-disruption-commentary-on-blumm-and-wood/">judicial role</a> in this case is analogous to court-supervised remedies aimed at ending official school segregation after the Supreme Court’s landmark <a href="https://theconversation.com/much-of-what-you-think-you-know-about-linda-brown-a-central-figure-in-brown-v-board-of-education-is-wrong-94082">Brown v. Board of Education</a> ruling.</p>
<p>The district court has rightly described Juliana as “<a href="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/571d109b04426270152febe0/t/5824e85e6a49638292ddd1c9/1478813795912/Order+MTD.Aiken.pdf">no ordinary lawsuit</a>.” As the youth plaintiffs assert, there remains only “an extremely limited amount of time to preserve a habitable climate system for our country.”</p>
<h2>Role of the courts</h2>
<p>U.S. fossil fuel production surged during <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/09/how-obama-became-oil-president-gas-fracking-drill/">Barack Obama’s presidency</a> even though he did support renewable energy and he engaged in climate-related diplomacy. As the window of opportunity to avert what UN Secretary General António Guterres calls the “<a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2018-09-10/secretary-generals-remarks-climate-change-delivered">direct existential threat</a>” of climate change is about to close under Trump’s leadership at a time when Republicans control both chambers of Congress, checks and balances in government matter more than ever before. </p>
<p>The U.S., after all, has three, not two, branches of government. In the Constitution, the Founders wisely created an independent judiciary and gave it the responsibility of preventing the other branches from trammeling upon the fundamental liberties of citizens.</p>
<p>In the Juliana case, youth plaintiffs are asserting well-established rights under the Constitution’s due process and equal protection clauses to personal security, family autonomy and property. They contend that the government’s fossil fuel policies jeopardize human life, private property and civilization itself.</p>
<p>They further assert rights secured by the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2572802">public trust doctrine</a>, a principle with ancient roots requiring government to hold and protect essential resources as a sustaining endowment for citizens, in the present and the future.</p>
<p>Oregon District Court <a href="https://www.ord.uscourts.gov/index.php/court-info/judges/judge-aiken-sub/93-honorable-judge-ann-aiken">Judge Ann Aiken</a> issued a <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2016/11/the_kids_lawsuit_over_climate_change_is_our_best_hope_now.html">landmark decision</a> in 2016 upholding both the Constitution’s due process rights and public trust rights, allowing the case to proceed.</p>
<p>At that time, she declared, “I have no doubt that the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society.” Numerous <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11072018/joseph-stiglitz-kids-climate-change-lawsuit-global-warming-costs-economic-impact">world-class experts plan to testify</a> during the trial in her courtroom to explain the grave threats posed by Trump’s energy policies.</p>
<h2>Not just here</h2>
<p>Judicial alarm over governmental failure to confront the climate emergency is growing around the world, resulting in decisions in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/07/pakistan-high-court-comes-to-defence-of-climate?CMP=share_btn_tw">Pakistan</a>, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/09/dutch-appeals-court-upholds-landmark-climate-change-ruling">Netherlands</a>, and <a href="https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/04/05/colombia-amazon-climate-change-deforestation/">Colombia</a> that ordered the authorities to act. These cases are all based on similar legal arguments: that governments have an obligation to protect their citizens from climate change.</p>
<p>A Dutch appeals court, for example, has ordered the Dutch government to cut emissions by <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/dutch-court-upholds-ruling-ordering-cut-in-emissions-1.3657599">25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020</a>. </p>
<p>In trying to get the case thrown out, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/412045-trump-admin-again-asks-supreme-court-to-stop-youth-climate-lawsuit">Justice Department lawyers</a> for the <a href="https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/federal-proceedings/">Trump and Obama administrations</a> alike have contested the <a href="http://climatecasechart.com/case/juliana-v-united-states/">jurisdiction of the district court</a> over these claims. The Trump lawyers also argue that a 50-day trial would impose an undue burden and cause irreparable harm.</p>
<p>But for the Supreme Court to stop the case on the eve of trial would disregard the standard judicial process. The courts use trials to develop a full record to determine constitutional violations.</p>
<p>In our view, following the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-gorsuchs-conservative-supreme-court-means-for-workers-76196">controversies</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/brett-kavanaugh-56609">turmoil surrounding Trump’s Supreme Court nominees</a>, the credibility of the judiciary itself is fragile. <a href="https://www.youthvgov.org/trial">Rallies</a> planned around the country in support of the litigation could soon turn to protests against a perceived abrogation of fair judicial process if the case does not go to trial.</p>
<p>We think that this climate lawsuit should force everyone to see what a fleeting – and terrifying – moment in history this is. With humanity’s very ability to survive on the planet hanging in the balance, the stakes could not be higher. </p>
<p><em>This article draws on material originally published on <a href="https://theconversation.com/earth-on-the-docket-why-obama-cant-ignore-this-climate-lawsuit-by-americas-youth-69193">Dec. 15, 2016</a>. It was updated to indicate that the Supreme Court stay has led to the trial’s indefinite postponement.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105277/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Wood has participated in a group of more than 60 law professors signing amicus briefs in support of youth-led climate cases against government. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael C. Blumm has participated in a group of more than 60 law professors signing amicus briefs in support of youth-led climate cases against government.</span></em></p>The Trump administration is trying to spike a lawsuit against the US government arguing that there’s a constitutional right to a stable climate.Mary Wood, Philip H. Knight Professor of Law, University of OregonMichael C. Blumm, Jeffrey Bain Scholar & Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/917132018-03-27T10:43:46Z2018-03-27T10:43:46ZCongress left a little something for waiters and dishwashers in its $1.3 trillion budget<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212052/original/file-20180326-188601-bjsgol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lawmakers have been generous. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Trudy Wilkerson/Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While federal workers were breathing a sigh of relief that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/us/politics/house-passes-spending-bill.html">Congress managed to avoid</a> a government shutdown, another group of workers also had reason to cheer. That’s because hidden deep in the US$1.3 trillion budget deal that President Donald Trump signed on March 23 was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/business/economy/tipping-workers.html">a measure</a> preventing his administration from changing the law to allow employers to take workers’ tips. </p>
<p>As an expert in workers’ rights, I believe the measure also has the potential to reduce an inequality that has long existed in the restaurant industry.</p>
<h2>The law on tips</h2>
<p>The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Tipped employees, however, can earn as little as $2.13 if they make up the difference between that and the minimum wage – or more – in tips. </p>
<p>This came to be known as a “tip credit” and <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/93/hr12677">allows</a> employers to pay subminimum wages, as long as they let the worker keep all of his or her tips. </p>
<p>In 2011, the Obama administration <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2011/04/05/2011-6749/updating-regulations-issued-under-the-fair-labor-standards-act">promulgated regulations</a> stating that employees must be allowed to keep all their tips, regardless of whether they are paid the tipped or full minimum wage. The only exception was in cases of a tip pool that distributed tips among employees who “customarily and regularly receive tips.” </p>
<p>Despite this rule, tip stealing is widespread in the restaurant industry. <a href="http://www.nelp.org/publication/broken-laws-unprotected-workers-violations-of-employment-and-labor-laws-in-americas-cities/">A 2009 survey</a> of low-wage workers in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles by the National Employment Law Project, a national policy organization, found that 12 percent of survey participants who received tips had their tips stolen by their employer in violation of current law. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212053/original/file-20180326-188604-3juqjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212053/original/file-20180326-188604-3juqjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212053/original/file-20180326-188604-3juqjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212053/original/file-20180326-188604-3juqjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212053/original/file-20180326-188604-3juqjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212053/original/file-20180326-188604-3juqjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212053/original/file-20180326-188604-3juqjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some restaurants pool tips to distribute them more evenly among staff.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ted S. Warren</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Changing the rules</h2>
<p>The Trump administration was poised to make this problem worse by repealing the regulation that required that employees be permitted to keep their tips, except pursuant to a legal tip pool.</p>
<p>In December, the Department of Labor <a href="https://www.eater.com/2017/12/5/16708374/tipping-laws-trump-department-of-labor-changes">announced</a> a proposed rule change that would have allowed employers to do whatever they wanted with tips earned by employees, including keep them, as long as the employees made at least $7.25 per hour. </p>
<p>The administration claimed that this rule change would have allowed employers to distribute tips more equitably among their employees. For instance, it would have permitted dishwashers and other kitchen staff to be a part of a tip pool, something previously not permitted. </p>
<p>Labor advocates <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/trump-department-labor-tipping-wage-theft-799683">cried foul</a>, arguing that the change would have resulted in a massive wealth transfer from workers to employers. <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/employers-would-pocket-workers-tips-under-trump-administrations-proposed-tip-stealing-rule/">An analysis</a> by the Economic Policy Institute estimated that the rule would have cost workers at least $5.8 billion per year in lost income. </p>
<p><a href="https://bnanews.bna.com/daily-labor-report/labor-dept-ditches-data-on-worker-tips-retained-by-businesses">A Department of Labor analysis</a> that was initially kept from the public came to similar conclusions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212045/original/file-20180326-188607-v39b7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212045/original/file-20180326-188607-v39b7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212045/original/file-20180326-188607-v39b7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212045/original/file-20180326-188607-v39b7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212045/original/file-20180326-188607-v39b7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212045/original/file-20180326-188607-v39b7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212045/original/file-20180326-188607-v39b7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Until now, ‘back of the house’ employees such as dishwashers weren’t allowed to share in tip pools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Restaurant inequality</h2>
<p>Whether or not the administration was being honest about its real motivations, the Department of Labor was right to draw attention to a form of structural inequality that exists in the restaurant industry. </p>
<p>Tipped workers typically make <a href="http://rocunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/REPORT_The-Great-Service-Divide2.pdf">two to four times</a> that of non-tipped workers, even when their formal salary is just $2.13 an hour. The ones who earn gratuities, such as waiters, bussers and food runners, are called “front of the house” employees. Meanwhile, “back of the house” employees, like cooks, dishwashers and other kitchen staff, don’t earn tips. </p>
<p>Because racial minorities are more likely to be employed in non-tipped positions, this income inequality results in a stark racial divide as well. A <a href="http://rocunited.org/2011/08/restaurants-and-race-discrimination-and-disparity-in-the-food-service-sector/">study</a> by the Restaurant Opportunity Centers United, a <a href="http://rocunited.org/">national restaurant worker advocacy group</a>, found that white food service workers earn $3 more per hour on average than workers of color, in part because of the tips that white workers are more likely to earn. </p>
<p>As long as federal regulations forbade tip pools to include these back of the house employees, this structural inequality was likely to persist.</p>
<h2>What the budget deal does</h2>
<p>The measure passed as part of the budget deal addressed both the concern about employers’ taking workers tips and the structural pay gap. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CPRT-115HPRT29374/pdf/CPRT-115HPRT29374.pdf">It states</a> that under no circumstances can employers or managers take workers’ tips. But it also suspends the Obama regulation that prohibited tip pooling with back of the house employees as long as all employees earn at least $7.25 per hour. </p>
<p>In other words, this will allow employers to distribute tips more fairly and better compensate their lowest-paid employees, who often work in back, while preventing owners from using the rule to line their own pockets. </p>
<p>Congress rarely passes legislation that is win-win, but in this situation it has managed to do just that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91713/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Hallett directs the Community Justice Clinic, which represents low-wage workers on issues related to, among other things, tip-stealing. </span></em></p>The budget bill just signed into law by the president will both make it harder for restaurants to take worker tips while reducing a form of inequality rife in the industry.Nicole Hallett, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, University at BuffaloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/906032018-01-24T11:39:12Z2018-01-24T11:39:12ZDACA isn’t just about social justice – legalizing Dreamers makes economic sense too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203096/original/file-20180123-33560-qh4nod.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Demonstrators chant slogans during an immigration rally in support of DACA.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Earlier this month, <a href="http://kxan.com/2017/12/02/daca-summit-gives-dreamers-hope-encouragement/">hopes were high</a> that a bipartisan deal could be reached to resolve the fate of the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/dreamers-24037">Dreamers</a>,” the millions of undocumented youth who were brought to the U.S. as children. </p>
<p>Those hopes <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/11/politics/daca-deal-obstacles-flake-white-house/index.html">all but vanished</a> on Jan. 11 as President Donald Trump aligned himself with hard-line anti-immigration advocates within the GOP and struck down bipartisan attempts to reach a resolution.</p>
<p>Now that optimism is re-emerging once more after Republican Senate leadership agreed, in exchange for ending the shutdown, to hold a vote on a solution to the young immigrants’ plight within weeks – if they haven’t reached a more comprehensive deal on immigration by then. But whether or not the president and Republicans can overcome the anti-immigrant elements in their party and reach a deal remains to be seen. </p>
<p><a href="https://cis.org/Immigration-Hurting-US-Worker">One of the arguments</a> advanced by those who oppose giving them citizenship is that doing so would hurt native-born workers and be a drain on the U.S. economy. My own research shows the exact opposite is true. </p>
<h2>Lives in limbo</h2>
<p>All in all, about <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/01/18/there-3-5-m-dreamers-and-most-may-face-nightmare/1042134001/">3.6 million immigrants</a> living in the U.S. entered the country as children. Without options for legal residency, their lives hang in the balance. </p>
<p>To address this problem, the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/web-video/vault-president-barack-obama-signs-daca">Obama administration created</a> the <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/consideration-deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-daca">Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals</a> program in 2012. <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/deferred-action-for-childhood-arrivals-daca-33587">DACA</a> gave <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/daca-four-participation-deferred-action-program-and-impacts-recipients">almost 800,000 of them</a> temporary legal work permits and reprieve from deportation. Although his successor terminated the program in September, this month a <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/10/576963434/federal-judge-temporarily-blocks-trumps-decision-to-end-daca">federal court halted that process</a>, allowing current recipients the ability to renew their status. </p>
<p>Any cause for celebration, however, was short-lived as the Department of Justice immediately responded by asking the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling. The Supreme Court has not yet announced a decision. In the meantime, the future of DACA recipients remains uncertain.</p>
<p>Today, the best hope for a permanent fix for the Dreamers rests on bipartisan efforts to enact the 2017 DREAM Act – for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors – which would extend pathways to citizenship to undocumented youth who entered the United States as children, graduated from high school and have no criminal record. A version of the act was <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/349285-graham-durbin-call-for-action-on-dream-act-by-end-of-september">first introduced</a> in 2001 and will likely be up for discussion in coming weeks. </p>
<p>The debate surrounding the DREAM Act is often framed around two seemingly irreconcilable views. </p>
<p>On one side, <a href="http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a14473133/kamala-harris-dream-act-op-ed">immigration activists advocate</a> for legalization based on pleas to our common humanity. These Dreamers, after all, were raised and educated in the United States. They are American in every sense but legally. </p>
<p>On the other, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/08/25/time-for-trump-to-keep-his-promises-daca-is-unconstitutional-and-bad-for-american-workers.html">critics</a> contend that legalization will come at a cost to U.S.-born workers, and their well-being should be prioritized. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202536/original/file-20180119-80171-1b2jixd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202536/original/file-20180119-80171-1b2jixd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202536/original/file-20180119-80171-1b2jixd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202536/original/file-20180119-80171-1b2jixd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202536/original/file-20180119-80171-1b2jixd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202536/original/file-20180119-80171-1b2jixd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202536/original/file-20180119-80171-1b2jixd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many immigrant advocates consider the DREAM Act the best hope for a permanent fix.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Lynne Sladky</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Impact of Dreamer citizenship on wages</h2>
<p>My <a href="http://ftp.iza.org/dp11281.pdf">research</a> with economists Ryan Edwards and Francesc Ortega estimated the economic impact of the 2017 DREAM Act if it were to become law. About 2.1 million of the undocumented youths <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/mpi-estimates-number-dreamers-potentially-eligible-benefit-under-different-legalization">would likely be eligible</a> to become citizens based on its age and educational requirements. </p>
<p>Our research showed that immigrants given permanent legal work permits under the DREAM Act would not compete with low-skilled U.S.-born workers because only those with at least a high school degree are eligible for legalization. The act also encourages college attendance by making it one of the conditions for attaining legal residency. </p>
<p>We also found that the act would have no significant effect on the wages of U.S.-born workers regardless of education level because Dreamers make up such a small fraction of the labor force. U.S.-born college graduates and high school dropouts would experience no change in wages. Those with some college may experience small declines of at most 0.2 percent a year, while high school graduates would actually experience wage increases of a similar magnitude.</p>
<p>For the legalized immigrants, however, the benefits would be substantial. For example, legalized immigrants with some college education would see wages increase by about 15 percent, driven by expansions in employment opportunities due to legalization and by the educational gains that the DREAM Act encourages.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202539/original/file-20180119-80171-wjvwfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202539/original/file-20180119-80171-wjvwfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202539/original/file-20180119-80171-wjvwfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202539/original/file-20180119-80171-wjvwfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202539/original/file-20180119-80171-wjvwfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202539/original/file-20180119-80171-wjvwfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202539/original/file-20180119-80171-wjvwfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Trump’s termination of DACA has put the lives of Dreamers like Faride Cuevas, second from right, in limbo.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Broader economic benefits</h2>
<p>The DREAM Act also promotes <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-dreamers-and-green-card-lottery-winners-strengthen-the-us-economy-82571">overall economic growth</a> by increasing the productivity of legalized workers and expanding the tax base. </p>
<p>Lacking legal work options, Dreamers <a href="https://www.rsfjournal.org/doi/pdf/10.7758/RSF.2017.3.4.06">tend to be overqualified</a> for the jobs they hold. My ongoing work with sociologist Holly Reed shows that the undocumented youth who make it to college are more motivated and academically prepared compared with their U.S.-born peers. This is at least in part because they had to overcome greater odds to attend college. </p>
<p>We find that they are also more likely than their native-born peers to graduate college with a degree. Yet despite being highly motivated and accomplished, undocumented college graduates are employed in jobs that are not commensurate with their education level, according to sociologist <a href="https://www.rsfjournal.org/doi/pdf/10.7758/RSF.2017.3.4.06">Esther Cho</a>. With legal work options, they will be able to find jobs that match their skills and qualifications, making them more productive. </p>
<p>Legalization also <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/08/30/science.aan5893">improves the mental health</a> of immigrants by <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-daca-affected-the-mental-health-of-undocumented-young-adults-83341">removing the social stigma</a> of being labeled a criminal and the looming threat of arrest and deportation. </p>
<p>From an economic standpoint, healthier and happier workers also make for a more productive workforce.</p>
<p>Overall, we estimate that the increases in productivity under the DREAM Act would raise the United States GDP by US$15.2 billion and significantly increase tax revenue.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202537/original/file-20180119-80194-16tge4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202537/original/file-20180119-80194-16tge4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202537/original/file-20180119-80194-16tge4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202537/original/file-20180119-80194-16tge4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202537/original/file-20180119-80194-16tge4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202537/original/file-20180119-80194-16tge4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202537/original/file-20180119-80194-16tge4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham have been leading recent efforts to pass bipartisan immigration reform.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Everyone can win</h2>
<p>The U.S. continues to grapple with how to incorporate the general population of nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country. </p>
<p>The inability of the Trump administration and lawmakers from both parties to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/17/trump-rejects-horrible-bipartisan-immigration-plan-reuters.html">find common ground</a> is emblematic of just how <a href="http://news.gallup.com/poll/206681/worry-illegal-immigration-steady.aspx">deeply divided</a> Americans are between those who want to send most of them home and others who favor a path toward citizenship for many if not most of them. </p>
<p>While there appears to be no resolution in sight for the general population of 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, common bipartisan ground <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/survey-finds-strong-support-for-dreamers/2017/09/24/df3c885c-a16f-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html">can be found</a> on the issue of Dreamers. A recent survey found that 86 percent of Americans support granting them amnesty.</p>
<p>The DREAM Act offers an opportunity to enact a permanent resolution for a group widely supported by the public. What is more, our research shows a policy that affirms our common humanity also increases economic growth without hurting U.S.-born workers.</p>
<p>This is a win-win for everyone, whether you care about social justice or worry about U.S. workers. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on Jan. 19, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90603/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Hsin receives funding from the MacArthur Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation.
</span></em></p>As lawmakers debate immigration policy in coming weeks, they should realize that giving immigrants who came to the US as children citizenship not only has broad political support but lifts the economy too.Amy Hsin, Associate Professor of Sociology, City University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/903772018-01-19T11:41:56Z2018-01-19T11:41:56Z‘Dreamers’ could give US economy – and even American workers – a boost<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202535/original/file-20180119-80203-1iuvh1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Demonstrators chant slogans during an immigration rally in support of DACA.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Earlier this month, <a href="http://kxan.com/2017/12/02/daca-summit-gives-dreamers-hope-encouragement/">hopes were high</a> that a bipartisan deal could be reached to resolve the fate of the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/dreamers-24037">Dreamers</a>,” the millions of undocumented youth who were brought to the U.S. as children. </p>
<p>Those hopes <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/11/politics/daca-deal-obstacles-flake-white-house/index.html">all but vanished</a> on Jan. 11 as President Donald Trump aligned himself with hard-line anti-immigration advocates within the GOP and struck down bipartisan attempts to reach a resolution.</p>
<p>As we enter the final hours before a potential government shutdown, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/us/politics/government-shutdown-house-vote.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news">many Democrats are insisting</a> that any short-term funding agreement must include a resolution for Dreamers. </p>
<p><a href="https://cis.org/Immigration-Hurting-US-Worker">One of the arguments</a> advanced by those who oppose giving them citizenship is that doing so would hurt native-born workers and be a drain on the U.S. economy. My own research shows the exact opposite is true. </p>
<h2>Lives in limbo</h2>
<p>All in all, about <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/01/18/there-3-5-m-dreamers-and-most-may-face-nightmare/1042134001/">3.6 million immigrants</a> living in the U.S. entered the country as children. Without options for legal residency, their lives hang in the balance. </p>
<p>To address this problem, the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/web-video/vault-president-barack-obama-signs-daca">Obama administration created</a> the <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/consideration-deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-daca">Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals</a> program in 2012. <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/deferred-action-for-childhood-arrivals-daca-33587">DACA</a> gave <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/daca-four-participation-deferred-action-program-and-impacts-recipients">almost 800,000 of them</a> temporary legal work permits and reprieve from deportation. Although his successor terminated the program in September, this month a <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/10/576963434/federal-judge-temporarily-blocks-trumps-decision-to-end-daca">federal court halted that process</a>, allowing current recipients the ability to renew their status. </p>
<p>Any cause for celebration, however, was short-lived as the Department of Justice immediately responded by asking the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling. The Supreme Court has not yet announced a decision. In the meantime, the future of DACA recipients remains uncertain.</p>
<p>Today, the best hope for a permanent fix for the Dreamers rests on bipartisan efforts to enact the 2017 DREAM Act – for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors – which would extend pathways to citizenship to undocumented youth who entered the United States as children, graduated from high school and have no criminal record. A version of the act was <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/349285-graham-durbin-call-for-action-on-dream-act-by-end-of-september">first introduced</a> in 2001.</p>
<p>The debate surrounding the DREAM Act is often framed around two seemingly irreconcilable views. </p>
<p>On one side, <a href="http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a14473133/kamala-harris-dream-act-op-ed">immigration activists advocate</a> for legalization based on pleas to our common humanity. These Dreamers, after all, were raised and educated in the United States. They are American in every sense but legally. </p>
<p>On the other, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/08/25/time-for-trump-to-keep-his-promises-daca-is-unconstitutional-and-bad-for-american-workers.html">critics</a> contend that legalization will come at a cost to U.S.-born workers, and their well-being should be prioritized. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202536/original/file-20180119-80171-1b2jixd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202536/original/file-20180119-80171-1b2jixd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202536/original/file-20180119-80171-1b2jixd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202536/original/file-20180119-80171-1b2jixd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202536/original/file-20180119-80171-1b2jixd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202536/original/file-20180119-80171-1b2jixd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202536/original/file-20180119-80171-1b2jixd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many immigrant advocates consider the DREAM Act the best hope for a permanent fix.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Lynne Sladky</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Impact of Dreamer citizenship on wages</h2>
<p>My <a href="http://ftp.iza.org/dp11281.pdf">research</a> with economists Ryan Edwards and Francesc Ortega estimated the economic impact of the 2017 DREAM Act if it were to become law. About 2.1 million of the undocumented youths <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/mpi-estimates-number-dreamers-potentially-eligible-benefit-under-different-legalization">would likely be eligible</a> to become citizens based on its age and educational requirements. </p>
<p>Our research showed that immigrants given permanent legal work permits under the DREAM Act would not compete with low-skilled U.S.-born workers because only those with at least a high school degree are eligible for legalization. The act also encourages college attendance by making it one of the conditions for attaining legal residency. </p>
<p>We also found that the act would have no significant effect on the wages of U.S.-born workers regardless of education level because Dreamers make up such a small fraction of the labor force. U.S.-born college graduates and high school dropouts would experience no change in wages. Those with some college may experience small declines of at most 0.2 percent a year, while high school graduates would actually experience wage increases of a similar magnitude.</p>
<p>For the legalized immigrants, however, the benefits would be substantial. For example, legalized immigrants with some college education would see wages increase by about 15 percent, driven by expansions in employment opportunities due to legalization and by the educational gains that the DREAM Act encourages.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202539/original/file-20180119-80171-wjvwfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202539/original/file-20180119-80171-wjvwfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202539/original/file-20180119-80171-wjvwfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202539/original/file-20180119-80171-wjvwfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202539/original/file-20180119-80171-wjvwfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202539/original/file-20180119-80171-wjvwfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202539/original/file-20180119-80171-wjvwfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Trump’s termination of DACA has put the lives of Dreamers like Faride Cuevas, second from right, in limbo.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Broader economic benefits</h2>
<p>The DREAM Act also promotes <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-dreamers-and-green-card-lottery-winners-strengthen-the-us-economy-82571">overall economic growth</a> by increasing the productivity of legalized workers and expanding the tax base. </p>
<p>Lacking legal work options, Dreamers <a href="https://www.rsfjournal.org/doi/pdf/10.7758/RSF.2017.3.4.06">tend to be overqualified</a> for the jobs they hold. My ongoing work with sociologist Holly Reed shows that the undocumented youth who make it to college are more motivated and academically prepared compared with their U.S.-born peers. This is at least in part because they had to overcome greater odds to attend college. </p>
<p>We find that they are also more likely than their native-born peers to graduate college with a degree. Yet despite being highly motivated and accomplished, undocumented college graduates are employed in jobs that are not commensurate with their education level, according to sociologist <a href="https://www.rsfjournal.org/doi/pdf/10.7758/RSF.2017.3.4.06">Esther Cho</a>. With legal work options, they will be able to find jobs that match their skills and qualifications, making them more productive. </p>
<p>Legalization also <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/08/30/science.aan5893">improves the mental health</a> of immigrants by <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-daca-affected-the-mental-health-of-undocumented-young-adults-83341">removing the social stigma</a> of being labeled a criminal and the looming threat of arrest and deportation. </p>
<p>From an economic standpoint, healthier and happier workers also make for a more productive workforce.</p>
<p>Overall, we estimate that the increases in productivity under the DREAM Act would raise the United States GDP by US$15.2 billion and significantly increase tax revenue.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202537/original/file-20180119-80194-16tge4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202537/original/file-20180119-80194-16tge4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202537/original/file-20180119-80194-16tge4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202537/original/file-20180119-80194-16tge4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202537/original/file-20180119-80194-16tge4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202537/original/file-20180119-80194-16tge4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202537/original/file-20180119-80194-16tge4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham have been leading recent efforts to pass bipartisan immigration reform.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Everyone can win</h2>
<p>The U.S. continues to grapple with how to incorporate the general population of nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country. </p>
<p>The inability of the Trump administration and lawmakers from both parties to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/17/trump-rejects-horrible-bipartisan-immigration-plan-reuters.html">find common ground</a> is emblematic of just how <a href="http://news.gallup.com/poll/206681/worry-illegal-immigration-steady.aspx">deeply divided</a> Americans are between those who want to send most of them home and others who favor a path toward citizenship for many if not most of them. </p>
<p>While there appears to be no resolution in sight for the general population of 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, common bipartisan ground <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/survey-finds-strong-support-for-dreamers/2017/09/24/df3c885c-a16f-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html">can be found</a> on the issue of Dreamers. A recent survey found that 86 percent of Americans support granting them amnesty.</p>
<p>The DREAM Act offers an opportunity to enact a permanent resolution for a group widely supported by the public. What is more, our research shows a policy that affirms our common humanity also increases economic growth without hurting U.S.-born workers. </p>
<p>This is a win-win for everyone, whether you care about social justice or worry about U.S. workers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90377/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Hsin receives funding from the MacArthur Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation.</span></em></p>While comprehensive immigration reform may be out of reach, giving immigrants who came to the US as children citizenship not only has broad political support but makes economic sense too.Amy Hsin, Associate Professor of Sociology, City University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/819732017-09-18T01:05:58Z2017-09-18T01:05:58ZHow the government can steal your stuff: 6 questions about civil asset forfeiture answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186223/original/file-20170915-4751-1m3uwx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The authorities don't need a conviction or even for a suspect to be charged with a crime before seizing a car, cash or even a house.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/confused-young-man-car-stopped-by-326490668?src=BLnKw0rBmzBYdpKmWYQMSw-1-1">Photographee.eu/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: Should someone wearing a badge have the power to relieve a suspected drug dealer of his Maserati on the spot without giving him an opportunity to flee or liquidate and launder his assets? Known as civil asset forfeiture, this practice might sound like a wise policy.</em></p>
<p><em>But <a href="https://raskin.house.gov/media/press-releases/house-approves-walberg-raskin-amendment-curb-civil-asset-forfeiture-abuse">lawmakers on both sides of the aisle</a> in Congress <a href="https://www.alec.org/article/states-seize-on-improvement-of-asset-forfeiture-laws/">and the states</a> are challenging the Trump administration’s embrace of the arrangement, which strips billions of dollars a year from Americans – who often have not been charged with a crime. Law professor and criminal justice expert <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=159728">Nora V. Demleitner</a> explains how this procedure works and why it irks conservatives and progressives alike.</em></p>
<h2>1. What is civil asset forfeiture?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.justice.gov/afp/types-federal-forfeiture">Civil asset forfeiture</a>
laws let authorities, such as federal marshals or local sheriffs, seize property – cash, a house, a car, a cellphone – that they suspect is involved in criminal activity. Seizures run the gamut from <a href="http://reason.com/blog/2017/06/13/poor-neighborhoods-hit-hardest-by-asset">12 cans of peas</a> to <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1988-05-21/news/mn-3136_1_coast-guard">multi-million-dollar yachts</a>. </p>
<p>The federal government <a href="https://oversight.gov/report/doj/review-departments-oversight-cash-seizure-and-forfeiture-activities">confiscated assets worth a total of about US$28 billion</a> during the decade ending in 2016, Justice Department data indicate.</p>
<p>In contrast to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/afp/types-federal-forfeiture">criminal forfeiture</a>, which requires that the property owner be convicted of a crime beforehand, the civil variety doesn’t require that the suspect be charged with breaking the law.</p>
<p>Three <a href="https://www.justice.gov/afp/participants-and-roles">Justice Department agencies</a> – the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – do most of this confiscating. Most states also permit local prosecutors to take personal property from people who haven’t been charged with a crime. However, <a href="https://ij.org/activism/legislation/civil-forfeiture-legislative-highlights">some states</a> have begun to limit that practice.</p>
<p>Even when there are restrictions on when and how local and state authorities can seize property, they can circumvent those limits if the federal government “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2011.02.010">adopts</a>” the impounded assets.</p>
<p>For a federal agency to do so requires the alleged misconduct to violate federal law. Local agencies get up to 80% of the shared proceeds back, with the federal agency keeping the rest. The divvying-up is <a href="https://www.justice.gov/criminal-mlars/equitable-sharing-program">known officially</a> as “<a href="http://ij.org/report/policing-for-profit/federal-equitable-sharing/">equitable sharing</a>.” <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-afmls/legacy/2015/01/26/victims.pdf">Crime victims</a> may also get a cut from the proceeds of civil forfeiture. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3kEpZWGgJks?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">John Oliver’s ‘Last Week Tonight’ segment on civil asset forfeiture in 2014 used humor to help viewers understand the practice.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Can people get their stuff back?</h2>
<p>Technically, the government must demonstrate that the property has something to do with a crime. In reality, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/09/06/stop-and-seize/?utm_term=.a60881a1ed0a">property owners in most states</a> must prove that they legally acquired their confiscated belongings to get them returned. This means the burden is on the owners to dispute these seizures in court. Court challenges tend to arise only when something of great value, like a house, is at stake.</p>
<p>Unless an owner challenges a seizure and effectively proves his innocence in court, the agency that took the property is free to keep the proceeds once the assets are liquidated. </p>
<p>Many low-income people don’t use bank accounts or credit cards. They carry cash instead. If they lose their life savings at a traffic stop, they <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/reports/2016/04/01/134495/forfeiting-the-american-dream/">can’t afford to hire a lawyer</a> to dispute the seizure, the Center for American Progress – a liberal think tank – has observed.</p>
<p>And disputing civil forfeitures is hard everywhere. Some states require a cash bond; others add a penalty payment should the owner lose. The process is expensive, time-consuming and lengthy, deterring even innocent owners. </p>
<p>There’s no comprehensive data regarding how many people get their stuff back. But over the 10 years ending in September 2016, about 8% of all property owners who had cash seized from them by the DEA had it returned, according to a report from the <a href="https://oversight.gov/report/doj/review-departments-oversight-cash-seizure-and-forfeiture-activities">Justice Department’s inspector general</a>. </p>
<h2>3. Who opposes the practice?</h2>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.cato.org/events/policing-profit-abuse-civil-asset-forfeiture">conservatives</a> and <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/news/2019/04/16/what-supreme-court-ruling-could-mean-civil-asset-forfeiture">progressives</a> dislike civil asset forfeiture. Politicians on the left and right have voiced concerns about the incentives this practice gives law enforcement to abuse its authority.</p>
<p>Critics across the political spectrum also question whether different aspects of civil asset forfeiture violate the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fifth_amendment">Fifth Amendment</a>, which says the government can’t deprive anyone of “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” or is unconstitutional for other reasons.</p>
<p>Until now, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/supreme-court-ruling-on-civil-forfeiture-2014-11">Supreme Court</a> and lower courts, however, have consistently <a href="http://law.jrank.org/pages/1231/Forfeiture-Constitutional-challenges.html">upheld civil asset forfeitures</a> when ruling on challenges launched under the Fifth Amendment. The <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2018/17-1091">same goes for challenges</a> under the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/eighth_amendment">Eighth</a> Amendment, which bars “excessive fines” and “cruel and unusual punishments,” and the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv">14th Amendment</a>, which forbids depriving “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”</p>
<p>In 2019, the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2018/17-1091">Supreme Court</a> unanimously found for the first time that these constitutional protections against excessive fines apply not just to the federal authorities but to the states as well.</p>
<p>Some concerns resonate more strongly for different ideological camps. Conservatives object mostly about how this impounding <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/444813/trumps-civil-forfeiture-position-violates-constitution-pleases-sheriffs-who-profit">undermines property rights</a>. </p>
<p>Liberals are outraged that the poor and <a href="https://www.aclu.org/news/new-aclu-report-shows-philadelphia-da-seizes-1-million-cash-annually-innocent-philadelphians">communities of color</a> tend to be disproportionately targeted, often causing great hardship to people accused of minor wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Another common critique: The practice encourages overpolicing intended to <a href="http://ij.org/report/policing-for-profit/following-the-funds/">pad police budgets</a> or accommodate <a href="https://doi.org/10.3386/w10484">tax cuts</a>. Revenue from civil asset forfeitures can amount to a substantial percentage of local police budgets, according to a <a href="http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/2015/04/above-law-groundbreaking-new-dpa-report-finds-extensive-civil-asset-forfeiture-abuses-n">Drug Policy Alliance study</a> of this practice in California. This kind of policing can undermine police-community relations.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.justice.gov/jm/jm-9-118000-ag-guidelines-seized-and-forfeited-property">Justice Department</a>’s guidelines state that forfeitures “punish and deter criminal activity by depriving criminals of property used in or acquired through illegal activities.”</p>
<p>However, the <a href="https://oversight.gov/report/doj/review-departments-oversight-cash-seizure-and-forfeiture-activities">Inspector General’s office</a> noted “without evaluating data more systemically, it is impossible for the Department to determine … whether seizures benefit law enforcement efforts, such as advancing criminal investigations and deterring future criminal activity.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186226/original/file-20170915-29578-ewukjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186226/original/file-20170915-29578-ewukjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186226/original/file-20170915-29578-ewukjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186226/original/file-20170915-29578-ewukjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186226/original/file-20170915-29578-ewukjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186226/original/file-20170915-29578-ewukjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186226/original/file-20170915-29578-ewukjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/186226/original/file-20170915-29578-ewukjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Critics of civil asset forfeiture argue that it can make policing more about raising revenue than improving public safety.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rear-view-traffic-officer-cautiously-approaching-554652241?src=BLnKw0rBmzBYdpKmWYQMSw-1-0">vincent noel/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. What is the scale of this confiscation?</h2>
<p>The federal revenue raised through this practice, which emerged in the 1970s, mushroomed from $94 million in 1986 to a high of $4.5 billion in 2014, according to the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/afp">Justice Department</a>.</p>
<p>The Justice Department says it returned <a href="https://oversight.gov/report/doj/review-departments-oversight-cash-seizure-and-forfeiture-activities">more than $4 billion</a> in forfeited funds to crime victims between 2000 and 2016, while handing state and local law enforcement entities at least $6 billion through “equitable sharing.”</p>
<p>The scale of seizures on the <a href="https://ij.org/report/forfeiture-transparency-accountability/#key_findings">state</a> and local level is less clear.</p>
<h2>5. What happened during the Obama and Trump administrations?</h2>
<p>Under the leadership of <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-findings-two-civil-rights-investigations-ferguson-missouri">Attorney General Eric Holder</a>, the Obama-era Justice Department determined that civil asset forfeiture was more about making money than public safety. It then <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-prohibits-federal-agency-adoptions-assets-seized-state-and-local-law">changed the guidelines for asset adoption</a>.</p>
<p>Beginning in 2015, joint state-federal task forces could continue to share forfeiture proceeds but <a href="https://oversight.gov/report/doj/review-departments-oversight-cash-seizure-and-forfeiture-activities">state agencies were no longer permitted</a> to ask the federal government to forfeit property they had taken on their own.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sessions-welcomes-expansion-of-asset-forfeiture-i-love-that-program/">I love that program</a>,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in 2017. “We had so much fun doing that, taking drug dealers’ money and passing it out to people trying to put drug dealers in jail. What’s wrong with that?” </p>
<p>Attorney General William Barr, Sessions’ successor in the Trump administration, has also <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/william-barr-confirmation-hearing-attorney-general-watch-live-stream-today-2019-01-15/">defended this policy</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Attorney General Jeff Sessions has expressed astonishment regarding the unpopularity of civil asset forfeiture.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>6. Congress and the states</h2>
<p>When Sessions changed the policy, legislative changes seemed possible. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/misleading-and-wasteful-us-marshals-service-and-assets-forfeiture-fund">Chuck Grassley</a> sent Sessions a memo about how the federal funds obtained from seizures were wasted and misused. In some cases, Grassley wrote, the government provided “misleading details about some of these expenditures.”</p>
<p>The House of Representatives <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/350353-house-votes-to-curb-asset-seizures">voted in 2017 for an amendment that would restrict</a> civil asset forfeiture adoption.</p>
<p>The House also approved a <a href="https://walberg.house.gov/media/press-releases/house-approves-walberg-raskin-amendment-curb-civil-asset-forfeiture-abuse">bipartisan measure</a> restricting civil forfeiture on June 20, 2019. This one goes further though and would substantially curtail the federal government’s powers.</p>
<p>State governments have also tried to discourage this kind of confiscation. <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-justice/evolving-civil-asset-forfeiture-laws.aspx">New Mexico, Nebraska and North Carolina</a> have banned civil forfeiture. <a href="https://www.mackinac.org/mackinac-center-applauds-michigan-civil-asset-forfeiture-reforms">Michigan</a> has made it easier to challenge these seizures. <a href="http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/2016/09/california-governor-brown-signs-bill-protecting-californians-civil-asset-forfeiture-abu">California</a> limited equitable sharing, and <a href="https://www.alec.org/article/illinois-legislature-proposes-to-reform-states-civil-asset-forfeiture-laws/">other states</a> have increased the <a href="http://cjonline.com/news-state/2015-10-15/forfeiture-reform-aligns-likes-billionaire-charles-koch-aclu">burden of proof the government must meet</a>. But in many states, <a href="https://taken.pulitzercenter.org">investigative reporting</a> has shown that innocent owners continue to lose their property.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3028074">Georgia Law Review</a> article, I gave examples of other ways to keep police departments and municipalities funded, such as increasing fines and fees. </p>
<p>Unless the police pursue some alternatives, funding woes will continue to contribute to abusive policing practices that fall most heavily on those who can the least afford them: the poor and communities of color.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81973/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nora V. Demleitner is affiliated with the Prison Policy Initiative as a board member.
</span></em></p>Politicians on the left and right object to this practice, which the Trump administration is championing.Nora V. Demleitner, Professor of Criminal and Comparative Law, Washington and Lee UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/813482017-08-15T09:36:09Z2017-08-15T09:36:09ZWashington’s foreign policy consensus fell apart long before Donald Trump<p>Donald Trump’s latest bombastic remarks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/09/politics/north-korea-donald-trump/index.html">threatening Kim Jong-un</a> with “fire and fury” for his continued provocations are a stark reminder of how drastically the rhetoric of national security has changed in Washington. Where the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-obama-doctrine/471525/">Obama doctrine</a> offered measured pragmatism and a mix of restraint, targeted counter-terrorism measures and diplomatic engagement, Trump has responded with martial swagger.</p>
<p>From launching cruise missiles on Syria to dropping the so-called “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/15/us-mother-of-all-bombs-moab-afghanistan-donald-trump-death-toll">mother of all bombs</a>” on IS fighters in Afghanistan, however, the Trump doctrine is neither coherent nor consistent. Instead of providing a strategic rationale for US foreign policy, the White House offers sabre-rattling and one-off military fireworks. </p>
<p>But there is a deeper problem: the US’s political consensus on national security has all but completely broken down. The world’s only remaining superpower is in a full-blown identity crisis about its current purpose, future position and adequate role on the world stage; Trump’s bluster is only a symptom of this malaise.</p>
<p>By now, political polarisation and the fracturing of political parties are more or less the defining features of American politics. Senate Republicans’ <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/343823-senate-rejects-obamacare-repeal-replacement-amendment">recent failure</a> to replace and repeal “Obamacare” laid bare their deep divisions; on the other side of the aisle, the Democrats are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/25/civil-war-raging-inside-democratic-party">tussling</a> over whether or not to embrace Bernie Sanders’s “democratic socialist” ideas and move beyond Hillary Clinton’s orthodox centrism. </p>
<p>But these are more than mere shock waves from Trump’s victory; they’re part of something much more complicated. As I argue in my new book, <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-american-grand-strategy-under-obama.html">American Grand Strategy under Obama</a>, the US’s political dysfunction did not begin with Trump, and it’s not confined to domestic politics. Even before Barack Obama was first sworn in, America was losing its sense of its role in the world.</p>
<h2>Indispensable no more</h2>
<p>Starting at the end of World War II, the US followed a grand strategy of <a href="https://www.swp-berlin.org/fileadmin/contents/products/comments/2016C40_rdf.pdf">liberal hegemony</a>: using American diplomatic leverage, military might and economic weight to deter potential aggressors, foster the global spread of democracy, uphold the international rule of law, and guarantee free trade in support of a globalised economy.</p>
<p>Underwriting this strategic vision was the belief in <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/10/11/the-myth-of-american-exceptionalism/">American exceptionalism</a>. The US wasn’t just different from other nations; it had a unique mission to lead the world and make it “safe for democracy”, via the use of force if necessary. Obama himself <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/06/03/obama-and-american-exceptionalism/?utm_term=.990d24ca998e">declared the US exceptional on several occasions</a>, singling out its constitution, the size of its economy, and its unmatched military capability. </p>
<p>But at the same time, Obama challenged the established Washington consensus by frequently questioning the <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/05/28/remarks-president-united-states-military-academy-commencement-ceremony">virtues of military intervention</a>. As commander-in-chief, he clearly articulated how much war had cost the US in both blood and treasure; he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/03/11/weakness-or-realism-in-foreign-policy/obamas-focus-is-on-nation-building-at-home">preferred</a> “nation-building at home” over remaking the Middle East in America’s image. </p>
<p>The elite consensus on American exceptionalism, liberal hegemony and military interventionism fractured, and not least in the president’s own words and actions. In 2011, Obama simultaneously <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/06/22/afghanistan.troops.drawdown/index.html">announced</a> a “surge” and then withdrawal in Afghanistan; he “led from behind” <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/leading-from-behind">in Libya</a>“, and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/10/04/the-problem-with-obamas-account-of-the-syrian-red-line-incident/?utm_term=.902a58bfd0e0">drew – and then failed to enforce</a> – a military "red line” on chemical weapons use in Syria.</p>
<p>But the most serious (and most surprising) split over America’s role in the world happened on the political right.</p>
<h2>One party, three strategies</h2>
<p>GOP establishment figures such as <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/mitt-romneys-neocon-war-cabinet/">Mitt Romney</a> and <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/389598/neocons-return-eliana-johnson">Marco Rubio</a>, supported by neoconservative intellectuals, pundits and think tanks, had not moved far beyond the notorious <a href="http://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/pubs/parameters/articles/03spring/record.pdf">Bush doctrine</a>, under which the global primacy of the US was enforced via premptive, unilateral military action. But come the late 2000s, their party was racked with ideological dissent.</p>
<p>The Tea Party movement, which kicked off in 2009 to oppose Obama on a platform of limited government, tax cuts and fiscal austerity, soon came into direct conflict with the Republican establishment and its intelligentsia, helping to unseat several established members of Congress.</p>
<p>On the one side, libertarian Republicans such as Kentucky <a href="http://nationalinterest.org/feature/rand-paul-found-his-voice-can-he-find-non-interventionist-13866">Senator Rand Paul</a> and like-minded organisations such as the Cato Institute rejected the large defence budgets and foreign interventions through which America had responded to 9/11, questioning an open-ended “War on Terror” and warning that the military-industrial complex and state surveillance could eventually corrupt republican government and civil liberties. </p>
<p>Then there was the Jacksonian populist wing of the Tea Party, among them Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon and his co-creation Breitbart News. They rejected liberal hegemony in favour of a neo-isolationist nationalism, a philosophy that runs through Trump’s mantra of <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/america-first-foreign-policy">America First</a>. Instead of spreading democracy, this strategic vision of America disdains immigration and free trade while questioning the value of longstanding alliances such as NATO.</p>
<p>It wasn’t just the Republican party however. The Obama years saw the orthodoxy of American grand strategy attacked by a diverse array of critics from both right and left, including libertarian and populist conservatives, progressive liberals such as <a href="https://berniesanders.com/issues/war-and-peace/">Bernie Sanders</a>, and <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2016-06-13/case-offshore-balancing">neo-realist international relations scholars</a>. From their different standpoints, they all argued that the strategic vision of liberal hegemony and military interventionism had overextended American commitments and squandered financial and military resources; instead of making America safer, they charged that interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya had turned out to be destabilising liabilities.</p>
<p>Both Obama and Trump reflected some of that criticism, albeit in dramatically different ways. Where Obama endorsed military restraint on several occasions – not least in a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-obama-doctrine/471525/">much-read interview on the Atlantic</a> – Trump called NATO “obsolete” and at one point suggested that the US could <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/22/us/politics/donald-trump-foreign-policy-interview.html?_r=1">withdraw its troops from South Korea and Japan</a>. As president Trump may have been softening those views on some fronts (not least NATO), but the message is clear: US allies can no longer take America for a “free ride”.</p>
<p>In the end, whereas Obama attempted to open up the prevailing Washington consensus, trying to reconcile American exceptionalism with a more limited use of US power, Trump and his coterie are trying to dissolve it altogether. For now “fire and fury” seem to have taken its place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81348/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Georg Löfflmann is the author of American Grand Strategy under Obama, published by Edinburgh University Press</span></em></p>What should America’s role in the world be? A lot of people have an answer, but few of them agree.Georg Löfflmann, Research and Teaching Fellow in International Security, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/688732017-01-21T00:40:11Z2017-01-21T00:40:11ZObama’s legacy is bittersweet – and its chance of survival hangs in the balance<p>The grace. The elegance. The deftness of touch. The quick intelligence. The soaring rhetoric. The unlimited aspirations. The hope of a better life for all. Though Barack Obama’s legacy is rather lesser than some might have hoped for when he was inaugurated president of the United States in 2009, in him the world has lost the leadership of a gentle soul, a humble man of immense quality and kindness. And now, these qualities will be replaced with bitter self-interest and vulgarity.</p>
<p>Even without the contrast of Donald Trump, Obama’s dignified bearing, even his very existence, was an inspiration. He and his wife <a href="https://theconversation.com/michelle-obama-speech-proves-you-dont-have-to-blow-your-own-trumpet-to-be-heard-70978">Michelle</a> were an unrivalled illustration of dignity in public office – and more than that, he has clearly left a profound mark on his country. </p>
<p>In his <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38580546">valedictory address</a> in Chicago, Obama was as always breathtakingly optimistic, both about what has been achieved and in his estimation of America’s potential to achieve greater things yet:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If I’d told you eight years ago that America would reverse a great recession, reboot our auto industry, and unleash the longest stretch of job creation in our history; if I’d told you that we would open up a new chapter with the Cuban people, shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program without firing a shot, take out the mastermind of 9/11; if I’d told you that we would win marriage equality and secure the right to health insurance for another 20m of our fellow citizens – if I’d told you all that, you might have said our sights were set a little too high.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To watch the incoming administration crumble this legacy into rubble will be unbearably painful. But it also pays to ask why this hugely gifted politician didn’t accomplish more – and why he won’t leave a more durable legacy.</p>
<h2>Back from the brink</h2>
<p>The task Obama faced after his inauguration was monumental. The 2008 financial crisis had threatened to engulf the US in a recession as deep and lasting as the Great Depression in the 1930s; the new president inherited an unemployment rate of 7.8%, which by October 2009 had risen to 10%. The 2009 <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/what-was-obama-s-stimulus-package-3305625">American Recovery and Reinvestment Act</a> delivered an $831 billion stimulus package, pumping money into infrastructure, education, health, energy, federal tax incentives, and expansion of unemployment benefits and welfare provisions. </p>
<p>According to the Council of Economic Advisers, the US economy added jobs for <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/economic_reports/2016.pdf">74 consecutive months</a> and reached its pre-recession average by mid-2015, falling to 4.6% by November 2016. Non-farm employment exceeded its pre-recession peak by 6.7m, with the automobile industry <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=111613">adding 700,000 jobs</a>.</p>
<p>This was a stunning turnaround, but millions of casualties of the financial crisis <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/americans-cant-recover-from-financial-crisis-2016-7?utm_source=feedburner&%3Butm_medium=referral&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+(Business+Insider)?r=US&IR=T">have still not recovered</a>. There remains a lingering sense that the financial institutions that caused the crisis were never made to pay for it. </p>
<p>Then there was the battle to achieve affordable universal health care, Obama’s signal social reform. This was a titanic fight that left him in an intractable conflict with the Republican Party in Congress for the whole of his two terms in office. The <a href="http://obamacarefacts.com/obamahealthcare-summary/">Affordable Care Act</a>, now widely known as “Obamacare”, requires all Americans to purchase a private health plan, secure an exemption, or pay a tax penalty. Those who could not afford health care qualified for Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or assistance in the form of tax credits. </p>
<p>Health care was ultimately extended to all citizens. But the system’s troubled implementation and the political guerrilla war waged against it before and since its introduction demonstrates the just how unprepared US for any comprehensive form of social provision.</p>
<h2>Bad examples</h2>
<p>Obama drew a line under the US’s military adventurism in the Middle East, finally <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-withdrawal-idUSTRE7BH03320111218">withdrawing US forces</a> from Iraq in December 2011; he also <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/28/statement-president-end-combat-mission-afghanistan">declared an end</a> to the war in Afghanistan in November 2014. But he was unable to head off the horrors of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/obamas-legacy-will-be-forever-tarnished-by-his-inaction-in-syria-67030">Syrian civil war</a>, first setting out a “red line” that Bashar al-Assad’s regime could not cross without consequences and then declining to act when it did. </p>
<p>While he avoided putting American “boots on the ground” on a grand scale, he presided over actions by special forces, including the mission that killed Osama bin Laden. He also continued to rain bombs on Muslim countries, and his apparent penchant for <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-political-role-of-drone-strikes-in-us-grand-strategy-62529">drone strikes</a> has arguably set a <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-donald-trump-takes-control-of-the-us-drone-fleet-63377">dangerous precedent</a>.</p>
<p>Obama also maintained a quiet but determined commitment to <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/02/interview-president-obama-underwater-snorkeling/">protect the environment</a>, working hard to replace fossil fuels with renewables. And while the world’s developing economies rebuffed a global climate agreement at Copenhagen in 2009, they ultimately committed to a rapid reduction in emissions at the 2015 <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-paris-climate-agreement-at-a-glance-50465">Paris summit</a>. The sense of optimism was capped by Obama’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/world/asia/obama-xi-jinping-china-climate-accord.html">emmissions reduction agreement with President Xi</a> of China. </p>
<p>But once again, by using his <a href="http://europe.newsweek.com/donald-trump-barack-obama-trump-transition-executive-orders-544838?rm=eu">executive powers</a> to circumvent an intransigent Republican congress, Obama laid this and other key achievements open to destruction by future presidents – and first in line is Donald Trump.</p>
<p>The fate of the US economy now lies in the hands of a man who claims to be a serial entrepreneur, but who could just as well be described as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2016/live-updates/general-election/real-time-fact-checking-and-analysis-of-the-first-presidential-debate/fact-check-has-trump-declared-bankruptcy-four-or-six-times/">serial bankrupt</a>. The new Republican-controlled Congress is already preparing to dismantle Obamacare, but needs to ensure millions of Americans who now have access to health care <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/314549-study-obamacare-repeal-could-leave-32-million-without-coverage">don’t suddenly lose it</a>.</p>
<p>In foreign affairs and military intervention, Obama’s successor promises to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-undiplomatic-twitter-diplomacy-isnt-a-joke-its-a-catastrophic-risk-70861">highly unpredictable</a>. He might be most dangerous of all when it comes to climate change and environmental protection, although international support for serious global measures to curb emissions has probably never been higher. </p>
<h2>System flaws</h2>
<p>Obama also failed to achieve some of his fundamental objectives, but many of these failures reflect fundamental flaws in the American system that are beyond any one president’s power to repair. </p>
<p>Above all, his hopes for a new era in race relations were cruelly dashed. Black Americans were still being lethally victimised as his presidency drew to a close, with police brutality perhaps a more incendiary issue than ever. Throughout it all, he remained dignified as ever; his <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38562817">plaintive rendition of Amazing Grace</a> at a church in <a href="https://theconversation.com/hate-violence-and-the-tragedy-of-the-charleston-shootings-43579">Charleston, South Carolina</a> where eight worshippers and a pastor were brutally killed marked the end of his effort not to be portrayed as a black president.</p>
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<p>Tragically, his efforts to constrain gun violence in the US failed to overcome the onslaught of political opposition to responsible control, and a constant patter of gunfire punctuated his presidency. At <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20738998">Sandy Hook elementary school</a>, 20 young children and six adults perished at the hands of a single shooter. The event <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67h-vsMX1EQ">brought Obama to tears</a>: “Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad. And by the way, it happens on the streets of Chicago every day.”</p>
<p>By his own admission, Obama failed to overcome the <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/republican-party-obstructionism-victory-trump-214498">intense partisanship</a> of American politics and society. The disfigurement of US democracy continues, undermining the possibility of stable government. Tens of millions of Americans don’t participate in the democratic process at all, and the political agenda is still disproportionately shaped by a wealthy corporate elite. </p>
<p>We can only hope that while the traumatic 2016 election may have left America’s more idealistic political forces chastened, they are not broken.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68873/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Clarke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The 44th president is now gone. What mark does he leave on his country?Thomas Clarke, Professor, UTS Business, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.