Cass Sunstein

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. Whenever a President’s political opponents despise his policies, they are tempted to start talking about impeachment. That’s certainly true today, with increasing calls, on the part of President Trump’s harshest critics, for taking the impeachment process seriously. Whether Americans like Trump or loathe him, they need to understand what that process is all about. It’s a crucial part of the constitutional plan. Those who lived through the American Revolution rejected the idea of a monarchy. Without the power of impeachment, it’s doubtful that We the People would have ratified the Constitution at all.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. According to the most famous words of the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech.” But what did the founders understand those words to mean?

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. One of the most spectacularly successful ideas in all of behavioral economics is Save More Tomorrow, by which employers ask employees if they would like to give some portion of their future wage increases to their retirement plans. An equally intriguing but largely untried idea is Give More Tomorrow, by which people take steps to increase their charitable donations – in the future. For nonprofits, employers and individuals, the holiday season would be a terrific time to take advantage of that idea.

George Lucas probably had no idea that Star Wars, his story about a moisture farmer going on an adventure, would change the course of storytelling. Memorable characters sure help set it apart from other science fiction, but Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein has good idea as to why it's such a global phenomenon. The original trilogy, he states, has something in it for everyone in that it tackles some very human problems: redemption, authoritarianism, and the appeal of darkness.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. From the very start of his presidency, Donald Trump has made it a high priority to reduce the level of federal regulation. And in 2017, the stock market has boomed. Many business leaders believe that this is hardly a coincidence, and that Trump’s deregulatory efforts have fueled the boom. Are they right? Probably not -- but it’s complicated.

President Trump is a compulsive liar who scorns the rule of law...What even some smart people don’t know is that the statement’s truth is, arguably, grounds to impeach Trump, even without his having committed a crime...For non-lawyers, that’s the big takeaway from “Impeachment: A Citizen’s Guide,” a new book by Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein. The slim manual is a tour of the history behind the spare words the Constitution offers for when to remove high officials: ”treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Sunstein disavows what he calls the “fundamentally wrong” belief, uttered by many liberals (even House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi), that a president must break a law to be impeached.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. Talk of impeaching President Trump surged after Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser and transition aide, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. But what is the real meaning of the Constitution’s mysterious provision authorizing removal of the president and other federal officials for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors”? Is the growing interest in impeachment simply wishful thinking by Trump's political opponents?

...For months, Trump has insisted that the investigations into Russian meddling—investigations being conducted by the special counsel Robert Mueller and by both the Senate and House Intelligence Committees—amount to nothing more than fake news. But, as is so often the case when the President cries “fake news,” the truth soon emerges...The broad outlines of the grounds for impeachment are more or less settled. Cass Sunstein, a professor at Harvard Law School, who recently published “Impeachment: A Citizen’s Guide,” told me, “The Framers wanted some kind of check on the executive, but they didn’t want to see impeachments for routine disagreements between Congress and the White House. They wanted to preserve the separation of powers, so they tried to set out criteria which would not compromise the executive branch.” One rule that’s clear is that an impeachable offense doesn’t have to be an actual crime.

A few weeks ago, I read a short new book by the legal scholar Cass Sunstein titled, simply, “Impeachment.” The book doesn’t mention President Trump once. Sunstein started writing it, he told me, partly because he was alarmed by what he considered reckless talk of impeachment during Trump’s first weeks on the job, before he had started doing much. Sunstein’s goal was to lay out a legal and historical framework for thinking about impeachment, independent of any specific president.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. We’re nearing the end of 2017, which means that it’s time to announce the most coveted of the annual movie awards: the Behavioral Economics Oscars (Becons for short). Created just a few years ago, the Becons, as they are called, have taken the film industry by storm.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. Imagine that at Thanksgiving dinner, you find yourself seated next to a cousin you like a lot but rarely see -- or better still, a devastatingly attractive friend of the family, someone you think you'd like to know better. Here’s a quiz: What’s the best way to make a good impression?

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein...To be sure, no one is above the law. Political opponents of a president cannot claim immunity from prosecution. But the bar must be set very high. That conclusion is vindicated not only by principle, but also by longstanding traditions. Whether Republican or Democratic, American presidents have been extraordinarily reluctant to call for prosecution of their political rivals. They have looked forward rather than backward. With his enthusiasm for prosecuting Hillary Clinton, President Donald Trump is breaking that longstanding norm of American democracy.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. In all the talk these days about the Constitution’s impeachment provision, there is widespread confusion about the meaning of the document’s mysterious words making the president, the vice president and other high-level officials impeachable for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” If you want to know what impeachment is all about, it’s best to put contemporary issues to one side and start with a document that should unite each and every American: the Declaration of Independence.

Hey, let’s talk about impeachment. You know, just in case it ever comes up. Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein has written a concise, enlightening and argumentative history and guide to getting rid of presidents, but he insists he is not thinking of anyone in particular. Or, more accurately, he’s won’t tell us if he’s thinking of anyone in particular. “With the goal of neutrality in mind,” Sunstein writes in his opening chapter, “I am not going to speak of any current political figure. I am going to focus on the majesty, and the mystery, of impeachment under the U.S. Constitution.”

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. The continuing revelations about Harvey Weinstein tell us something important about sexual harassment and sexual violence, and also about civil-rights movements and social change more broadly. In brief: Because of social norms, people often shut up. Even if they are humiliated, hurt or angry, they will not say a word. It is only when norms start to shift that people feel free to disclose what they have experienced, and to say what they think. Once they are unleashed, social upheaval can result. But it is hard or even impossible to predict whether that will happen – and what form it will take.

This week, Department of Justice special counsel Robert Mueller picked up the public pace of his team's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Indictments were unsealed, and a potentially important plea agreement revealed...Experts say there is nothing anyone could do to invalidate such pardons. A presidential pardon cannot be undone. But constitutional scholar Cass Sunstein, author of the new book Impeachment: A Citizen's Guide, notes that the framers of the Constitution, in the Virginia ratification debate, discussed whether abuse of the pardon power would be an impeachable offense — and James Madison explicitly said it would be. "If the president counsels crimes personally or participates in a crime personally," Sunstein says, "and then exercises the pardon power so as to shelter the people who engaged in those crimes, the Virginia debate is very clear. That is an impeachable offense."

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. With the indictments of two campaign associates of then candidate Donald Trump, and the guilty plea of one of his foreign policy advisers, some people are starting to talk again about the possibility of impeachment. Let’s put contemporary issues to one side and instead ask an enduring question: Did the framers get impeachment right? In other words, does the Constitution strike the right balance?

An article by Cass Sunstein. Despite its importance, impeachment is a challenging and arcane subject — the Finnegans Wake of constitutional law. Fortunately, there are some terrific books on the topic, helping to guide the perplexed.

An interview with Cass Sunstein. With special counsel Robert Mueller bringing federal charges against two former advisers to President Trump’s campaign, and a campaign foreign policy adviser pleading guilty to lying about efforts to obtain damaging information from the Russians about Hillary Clinton, what was once inconceivable has become a little less so. Should evidence eventually emerge of possible criminal activity involving Trump himself, analysts say, Congress might have to ponder opening the impeachment process against him, as it last did against President Bill Clinton in 1998. Few clauses in the U.S. Constitution are as mysterious or as misunderstood by Americans as impeachment, and that’s unfortunate, contends Cass R. Sunstein, the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School.

An op-ed by Cass Sunstein. Just a few days after Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize in economics earlier this month, the U.K.’s Behavioural Insights Team released its annual report. What good timing! Thaler helped inspire the creation of the Behavioural Insights Team in 2010, not only with his academic work, but also by numerous (and continuing) discussions with the team.