Niloofar Asgari, MPA Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives While campaigning for the presidency, then-candidate Donald Trump made a promise that he would ban Muslims from coming to the U.S. In a quest to keep his promise, President Trump signed two executive orders and one presidential proclamation to form what is collectively referred to as the Muslim Ban, drawing […]

Catherine Kaufman, MPA Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives The death of high-profile financier and convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein in a federal jail has brought increased attention to staffing problems within the U.S. prison system. Although current Attorney General William Barr believes the jail suffered from “serious irregularities,” the issues of understaffing and turnover among prison staff are not new. Indeed, between […]

Sydney Hamilton, MPA Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives Since the end of the Cold War, an uneasy peace has settled between the US and Russia, thanks in no small part to a variety of nuclear weapons treaties. These treaties are imperfect, but they have arguably served their purpose: stopping the world from descending into nuclear war. […]

Kaid Ray-Tipton, MPA Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives Origins of American Capital Punishment The United States has a long and largely undocumented history of capital punishment. The origin of American executions lies within racialized terror that is ingrained in the country’s history. While many of these government-sponsored killings happened at the local level, the federal government moved towards […]

Kim Wilson, MPP Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives Policymakers are considering alternatives to an expiring rule exemption intended to protect mortgage borrowers and prevent defaults. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) established the qualified mortgage (QM) government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) patch to enable lending to creditworthy borrowers with debt-to-income (DTI) ratios above 43 percent. Proponents of the patch argue […]

Madison Grady, MPP Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives When you download an app onto your phone, do you check to see who created the app, or who owns it? Whether the company is American, Russian, or Chinese? When you create an account, do you carefully review the terms and conditions? Are you thinking about who is […]

Sydney Hamilton, MPA Staff Writer, Brief Policy Perspectives When discussions surrounding feminism occur, the conversation often turns to the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). While it may seem like the ERA would be universally supported and desired by all feminists, this is not the case. A feminist, as used in this article, is someone who supports women’s […]