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When Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy ordered an investigation into the Manhattan district attorney’s ongoing criminal probe of former President Donald Trump, he broke with the body’s long-standing norms. After all, federal lawmakers typically don’t try to assert oversight of county-level investigations of American citizens.
But, as Sarah Burns, a scholar of the legislative branch at Rochester Institute of Technology, writes this week, McCarthy’s order was just one in a litany of norm-breaking moves affecting how the House of Representatives operates. House Republican members’ forcing 15 ballots before the body elected McCarthy speaker of the House at the beginning of this legislative session was another.
“The norms of governance in the House provide stability and clarity regarding what type of behavior is and is not allowed among members. But when those norms are broken, a series of devolving consequences can follow,” Burns writes.
Whatever is motivating the behavior and decisions of House members, Americans are watching.
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Speaker Kevin McCarthy at a news conference on Capitol Hill.
Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Sarah Burns, Rochester Institute of Technology
The House of Representatives is breaking norms and establishing a new way for the body to do business.
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Acts of secession are happening across the U.S.
Vector Illustration/Getty Images
Michael J. Lee, College of Charleston
Secession talk evokes fears of a second Civil War. But one scholar says secession is already happening in the US under a variety of guises.
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The state takeover is based largely on one school.
Maskot / Getty Images
Domingo Morel, New York University
Political power and a history of racism lurk behind the recent state takeover of the Houston public school system.
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Thomas E. Patterson, Harvard Kennedy School
The local news crisis is more than a problem of shuttered newsrooms and laid-off journalists. It’s a democracy crisis. And public radio can help fix it. But it needs more money and staff to do that.
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Ronald Suny, University of Michigan
The setting was grand, so too was the plan. But behind the peace plan put forward by China and welcomed by Russia, is the question, what do both nations seek?
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Shelley Inglis, University of Dayton
When former President Donald Trump summoned his fans to protest over what he called his imminent indictment, a scholar of democracy saw it as an autocratic move.
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Carl Miller, King's College London
New research shows that antisemitic posts surged as the ‘free speech absolutist’ took over the social media giant. And it has settled at a higher level since.
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Brian Urlacher, University of North Dakota
The Bush administration invaded Iraq with plans for it to become a democracy. But according to some social science measures, the country isn’t any more democratic than it was before 2003.
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Brian Mittendorf, The Ohio State University
The National Rifle Association is spending heavily on legal fees and slashing programs for its members.
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Andrew Mines, George Washington University; Amira Jadoon, Clemson University
ISIS-K’s recent killings of Taliban brass are part of the extremist group’s long-term strategy. Will Taliban leaders contain the resurgence of violence?
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Robert T. Walker, University of Florida
Nearly 95% of deforestation in the Amazon occurs within 3.5 miles of a road or near a river. Brazil’s plans to ramp up exports may be on a collision course with the forest.
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V. Gerard (Jerry) Comizio, American University
The recent collapse of three banks has lawmakers debating whether stricter regulations will prevent other banks from meeting the same fate.
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