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Articles by William E. Scheuerman
No Justice, No Peace: The Ethics of Violent Protests
BOOK REVIEW No Justice, No Peace: The Ethics of Violent Protests Avia Pasternak, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2025, 278, $34.95, ISBN 9780197556689, HB. First published: 22 November 2025 view metrics No abstract is available for this article. References King, M. L. 1986[1965]. “ Playboy Interview.” In A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by J. M. Washington, 340–377. Harper Collins. King, M. L. 2010[1968]. The Trumpet of Conscience. Beacon.
Trump 2.0 as ‘Dual State'?
Donald Trump’s radicalized efforts to transform US constitutional democracy into personalized executive-centered rule have again generated a predictable avalanche of invocations of Carl Schmitt, emergency government’s theoretically most daunting defender.
Republicans find new ways to make voting harder in Indiana | Opinion
The GOP enjoys supermajorities in the Indiana House and Senate. In recent years, Republicans have pretty much gotten their way, even when pushing controversial bills that opinion polls suggest may not be broadly popular among Hoosiers. Since what counts in politics are Election Day results, and not the polls, an increasingly right-wing GOP has amassed impressive political power. But apparently that isn’t enough.
Republicans find new ways to make voting harder in Indiana | Opinion
Republicans find new ways to make voting harder in Indiana | Opinion William E. Scheuerman | Opinion Contributor Show Caption Hide Caption Indiana Kids Election program teaches voting, elections in Plainfield Indiana Kids Election program teaches students about voting at Plainfield H.S. The GOP enjoys supermajorities in the Indiana House and Senate.
Trump’s Straussian Shysters: The Scary Sequel
Nearly three years ago I wrote here about the far-right constitutional theory behind Trump lawyer John Eastman’s role in the inept yet deadly January 6, 2021 coup attempt against then President-elect Joe Biden.
The US Supreme Court and Plutocracy
Populist authoritarianism is a well-known global phenomenon. However, the US is the only so-called consolidated democracy where its ascent has been eased by the systematic dismantling of legal limits on campaign donations. US elections are now not only the world’s most costly, but they are also directly subject to the inordinate influence of wealthy individuals and corporations. The Supreme Court of the United States’ (SCOTUS) 2019 Citizens United v.
Trump and the Folklore of Capitalism
How can we make sense of the return of Donald Trump, who again convinced enough US voters of his populist bonafides? Trump is already filling his cabinet with multimillionaires and billionaires, a group The Guardian characterizes as a “gallery of mega-rich backers [in] key positions that…will give them power to cut spending on public survives that are used by the mot poor and vulnerable” .Populist authoritarianism has made inroads around the world.
Column: Why I think Pamela Whitten is Indiana University's worst president ever
I am grateful for the H-T’s investigation of IU President Pamela Whitten’s rocky tenure and the sources of her unpopularity. But the situation is even worse than what the H-T reports. IU has had some great — and not-so-great — presidents. But anyone familiar with IU’s history will grasp why so many of us regretfully have concluded: Whitten belongs among our worst presidents ever.
Column: Indiana's lawmakers are trying to end tenure. They must be stopped Original
The state’s GOP supermajority is fast-tracking a bill (SB-202) that threatens to destroy public higher education as we know it. Anyone who cares about Indiana’s public colleges and universities should worry.
Horkheimer's unrealized vision
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Commodifying the Life of the Mind
As a long-time leader in higher ed unionism, I was recently asked to comment on the transformative changes taking place in American higher education. To answer, I reflected on my nearly sixty years in higher education. I was a working-class kid from New York City who went to CCNY, where tuition was free. Yes, free. Free or low-cost tuition was the norm in American public colleges and universities in the 1960s. My expectations of college were probably typical of my generation.
Forward to the Past
Outrage continues over Justice Neil Gorsuch’s recent remarks that policy responses to COVID-19 may represent “the greatest intrusion of civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.” Slavery, the historical exclusion of women and non-property owners from voting, Jim Crow, the abuses of the Red Scares and an infinite list of other violations of civil liberties are nothing to Gorsuch compared to asking people to wear masks and get vaccinations.
Steering the Titanic into the Iceberg
Patty Chayefsky’s film Network, an acid-laced spoof of capitalist media, reaches its climax when Chairman Arthur Jensen, leader of the fictional mega-corporation CAA, thunders his disapproval to the crazed but wildly popular anchorman, Howard Beale.
Resurrecting May Day
Another May Day has come and gone, and most Americans never noticed. It wasn’t always like this. In decades past, thousands of workers of different ages, ethnicities and genders celebrated the first of May by marching in support of worker rights. Workers traditionally wore red on May Day to show unity in their struggle against the power of capital and to remember the blood shed by thousands of workers in the struggle for human dignity.
Aggression, Guns, and Marcuse
Better not knock on the wrong door or drive into the wrong driveway, you may get shot. Kids are afraid to go to school for fear of getting killed, as the body count from mass shootings climbs every day. Hate crimes are increasing, and just driving to work is potentially dangerous. Think of tailgaters honking their horns and flipping you the bird as they speed past. Politicians address these issues by calling for gun safety legislation, increasing the number of police, and so on.
Playing with Financial Fire
Capitalism, Marx said, is unceasingly prone to crisis. His observation applies as much to financial capital as to industrial capital, as the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank of New York attest. In their pursuit of profits, banks make loans that borrowers cannot repay. Why has this scenario become so deeply rooted in American capitalism and what is the state’s role in restabilizing the financial system once the house of cards begins to tremble?
Class, Identity and Exploitation
A recent expose in The New York Times documenting how U.S. corporations exploit migrant children sheds light on a crucial issue facing the American Left. Nowadays, many left activists rightly focus on identity politics. To them, diversity is the order of the day. No argument here. Richard Penniman, aka Little Richard, said it succinctly: diversity is a beautiful bouquet of flowers. But the celebration of differences oftentimes ignores what holds us together, what we have in common.
DeSantis as Gradgrind
Florida’s Governor DeSantis educational scheme that students need to learn the facts and nothing but the facts is likely to make teaching and learning in Florida more challenging than ever before. DeSantis’ “fact only” pedagogy mirrors that of Thomas Gradgrind, a character in Dickens’ Hard Times who sustained the Victorian status quo by teaching students how not to think.
DeSantis and Education
Have you ever been grilled by little kids asking the question, “Why?” Why is the sky blue? Why does Heather have two moms? Why are you going to work? Why do you need money? Before you know it they have you questioning basic social values you never even thought about. That’s why right-wing Americans attack public education from kindergarten through college.
Big Oil’s Price Gouging
by William E. Scheuerman / February 1st, 2023 As I pulled into the gas station to fill up, my car radio car told me that on January 31st Exxon-Mobile announced record-breaking profits of over fifty-five billion dollars. With the price of gas again approaching four bucks a gallon, I was certainly making my contribution to Big Oil’s profiteering. The big oil companies justify their price hikes by rightly claiming that consumer demand for oil far outstrips supply. Okay.
Commentary: There's more to freedom than just individual liberties
The other day I saw a pickup truck run a stop sign in a mall parking lot, just missing an elderly woman on the pedestrian crossing. When I instinctively shouted, “Stop!” the driver cursed, gave me the bird and sped off. I guessed the driver viewed my protestation as an infringement on his freedom to run a stop sign. I can’t tell you how many guys like this driver I’ve encountered lately.
The Cambridge Companion to Civil Disobedience
The theory and practice of civil disobedience has once again taken on import, given recent events. Considering widespread dissatisfaction with normal political mechanisms, even in well-established liberal democracies, civil disobedience remains hugely important, as a growing number of individuals and groups pursue political action.
The Fight Ahead
Image: A protester holds a Trump flag inside the US Capitol Building near the Senate Chamber on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) The Republican Party has become a white nationalist party. If old fashioned politics can’t change that, we must consider alternatives.
Bolsonaro’s War Against Reason
Wikimedia The Brazilian president’s offensive against universities threatens democracy and recalls the dark years of the country’s dictatorship. The students and faculty of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, one of Brazil’s top universities, woke up to a shock on September 16. Overnight, President Bolsonaro had named a new person head of the university—someone who had lost the university’s own elections for the post.
Democracy Is on the Ballot
Flickr Donald Trump's winning strategy. With the presidential election just twenty-one days away, many look ahead with apprehension. Donald Trump has yet to agree to a peaceful transfer of power, and he and his administration have been actively working to undermine the legitimacy of the electoral process. Joshua Cohen spoke with Reed Hundt to discuss Trump’s strategy for winning.
Why Do Authoritarians Win?
President Trump and President Xi Jinping shake hands in Beijing, People’s Republic of China on November 9, 2017. Image: The White House Not by repudiating democracy but by simulating it, a new book argues. The New Despotism John Keane Harvard University Press, $27.95 (cloth) Democracy seems in bad shape these days. In contrast, its global political rivals appear to be prospering and gaining confidence in their ability to offer a viable alternative.
Theorizing the Politics of Protest: Contemporary Debates on Civil Disobedience
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. References Aitchison, G. (2018) (Un)Civil Disobedience. Raisons politiques 69: 5–12. Bedau, H. (1961) On Civil Disobedience. The Journal of Philosophy 58(21): 653–661. Boyte, H. (2005) Everyday Politics: Reconnecting Citizens and Public Life. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Braunstein, R.
Donald Trump meets Carl Schmitt
Abstract By revisiting late-Weimar debates between Carl Schmitt and two left-wing critics, Otto Kirchheimer and Franz L Neumann, we can shed light on the surprising alliance of populist politics with key tenets of economic liberalism, an alliance that vividly manifests itself in the political figure and retrograde policies of Donald Trump.
Flashback: The FBI Kavanaugh investigation was a joke. I tried to help and was ignored.
Editor's note: This column was originally published on Oct. 9, 2018. In an almost party-line vote, senators voted this weekend to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The FBI inquiry into Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual misconduct, Republicans tell us, was rigorously conducted, and no evidence corroborating accusations by Christine Blasey Ford and Debbie Ramirez was found. The real problem, Republican Sen.
Judith N Shklar as theorist of political obligation
Arendt, H (1972) Crises of the Republic. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Google Scholar Ashenden, S, Hess, A (eds) (2019) Between Utopia and Realism: The Political Thought of Judith N. Shklar. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Google Scholar Bajohr, H (2014) Judith Shklar. Berlin: Matthes and Seitz. Google Scholar Benhabib, S (2018) Exile, Statelessness, and Migration: Playing Chess with History from Hannah Arendt to Isiah Berlin. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Kavanaugh Yale classmate: The FBI investigation was a joke. I tried to help and was ignored.
In an almost party-line vote, senators voted this weekend to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The FBI inquiry into Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual misconduct, Republicans tell us, was rigorously conducted, and no evidence corroborating accusations by Christine Blasey Ford and Debbie Ramirez was found. The real problem, Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana says, are partisan Democrats on a “search and destroy mission” to undermine Kavanaugh. In reality, the FBI investigation was a joke.
Kavanaugh Yale classmate: The FBI investigation was a joke. I tried to help and was ignored.
In an almost party-line vote, senators voted this weekend to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The FBI inquiry into Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual misconduct, Republicans tell us, was rigorously conducted, and no evidence corroborating accusations by Christine Blasey Ford and Debbie Ramirez was found. The real problem, Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana says, are partisan Democrats on a “search and destroy mission” to undermine Kavanaugh. In reality, the FBI investigation was a joke.
Kavanaugh Yale classmate: The FBI investigation was a joke. I tried to help and was ignored.
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Kavanaugh Yale classmate: The FBI investigation was a joke. I tried to help and was ignored.
In an almost party-line vote, senators voted this weekend to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The FBI inquiry into Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual misconduct, Republicans tell us, was rigorously conducted, and no evidence corroborating accusations by Christine Blasey Ford and Debbie Ramirez was found. The real problem, Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana says, are partisan Democrats on a “search and destroy mission” to undermine Kavanaugh. In reality, the FBI investigation was a joke.
Flashback: The FBI Kavanaugh investigation was a joke. I tried to help and was ignored.
USA Today NetworkWilliam E. Scheuerman, Opinion contributor Published 12:06 p.m. ET Oct. 9, 2018 | Updated 8:02 p.m. ET Sept. 15, 2019 Sen. Mitch McConnell said the vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court showed the Republican Party standing up for the presumption of innocence, and he doesn't see the fight hurting his party, in fact he says it may help. (Oct.
Kavanaugh Yale classmate: The FBI investigation was a joke. I tried to help and was ignored.
In an almost party-line vote, senators voted this weekend to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The FBI inquiry into Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual misconduct, Republicans tell us, was rigorously conducted, and no evidence corroborating accusations by Christine Blasey Ford and Debbie Ramirez was found. The real problem, Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana says, are partisan Democrats on a “search and destroy mission” to undermine Kavanaugh. In reality, the FBI investigation was a joke.
Kavanaugh Yale classmate: The FBI investigation was a joke. I tried to help and was ignored.
In an almost party-line vote, senators voted this weekend to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The FBI inquiry into Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual misconduct, Republicans tell us, was rigorously conducted, and no evidence corroborating accusations by Christine Blasey Ford and Debbie Ramirez was found. The real problem, Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana says, are partisan Democrats on a “search and destroy mission” to undermine Kavanaugh. In reality, the FBI investigation was a joke.
Kavanaugh Yale classmate: The FBI investigation was a joke. I tried to help and was ignored.
In an almost party-line vote, senators voted this weekend to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The FBI inquiry into Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual misconduct, Republicans tell us, was rigorously conducted, and no evidence corroborating accusations by Christine Blasey Ford and Debbie Ramirez was found. The real problem, Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana says, are partisan Democrats on a “search and destroy mission” to undermine Kavanaugh. In reality, the FBI investigation was a joke.
Kavanaugh classmate: 'The FBI investigation was a joke'
Republican Sen. Todd Young voted this weekend to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The FBI inquiry into Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual misconduct, he tells us, was rigorously conducted, and no evidence corroborating accusations by Christine Blasey Ford and Debbie Ramirez was found. The real problem, Young says, are partisan Democrats on a “search and destroy mission” to undermine Kavanaugh (Indy Star10/6/18). In reality, the FBI investigation was a joke.
I Lived With Brett Kavanaugh At Yale. The FBI Never Returned My Call.
Last Saturday, I called the FBI to offer information potentially useful to its investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual misconduct. Like many others, I hoped that the FBI inquiry would shed additional light on the serious but uncorroborated accusations against Kavanaugh. The FBI never returned my call. I went to college at Yale with Kavanaugh, lived in the same residential halls, and graduated with him in 1987.
I Lived With Brett Kavanaugh At Yale. The FBI Never Returned My Call.
Last Saturday, I called the FBI to offer information potentially useful to its investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual misconduct. Like many others, I hoped that the FBI inquiry would shed additional light on the serious but uncorroborated accusations against Kavanaugh. The FBI never returned my call. I went to college at Yale with Kavanaugh, lived in the same residential halls, and graduated with him in 1987.
Snowden and the Ethics of Whistleblowing
May 21, 2014 17 Min read time Is it naïve to see whistleblowing as a form of civil disobedience? Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks have been the talk of the globe for more than a year now. Yet we remain in the dark about how this thirty-year-old high school dropout evolved into one the world’s most prominent critics of state surveillance. Although opinion outside the United States appears to be behind Snowden, views at home are more polarized. And questions linger. Was Snowden’s whistleblowing justified?
The Market Police
Image: Duncan Hull In the neoliberal project, state power is needed to enforce market relations. But because democratic politics can demand broader economic planning, the site of that power must be hidden from politics. Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism Quinn Slobodian Harvard University Press, $35 (cloth) In 1907, in the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Austria saw its first elections held under universal male suffrage.
The App that Makes You a Terrorist
In the Turkish government’s rush to root out conspirators, the threshold for guilt is low. In May 2017, Mustafa Yaman, a fifty-one-year-old lawyer in Istanbul, received a troubling phone call from a friend in the Turkish Ministry of Justice in Ankara. Prosecutors were preparing to bring terrorism charges against him, alleging he was part of a religious movement blamed for a bloody attempted coup the year before.
Trump's Latin American Model
Poetry and Agency Under Trumpby David Micah Greenberg What does it mean to produce culture in response to the rampant misogyny, racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism of our current political climate? For writers and artists, the issue of expression’s political value is particularly acute.
Habermas and the Fate of Democracy
A new biography reveals Habermas's commitment to a democratic ideal. Jürgen Habermas’s career, with its prodigious philosophy and social theory now translated into forty different languages, can be interpreted primarily as an effort to make intellectual sense of democracy and its untapped possibilities.
Hamilton's Choice
Image: Steve Jurvetson Hamilton presents us with the Choice of Hercules retold as a choice between two kinds of political life. The ancient Greek and Roman Stoics told prospective pupils a story about the hero Hercules. Arriving at a fork in the road, the young hero is approached by two goddesses. One is beautiful and tempting; she promises happiness and worldly renown.
The Religious-Liberty Attack on Transgender Rights
Christian conservatives have been feeling on the defensive for some time now, but as the saying goes, sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Consider today’s big sticking points: gay and transgender rights. In March, North Carolina passed a law requiring transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates. The same act also revoked the right to sue under a state antidiscrimination law.
The Drifters
Why the Supreme Court Makes Justices More Liberal. When Justices William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O’Connor left the bench last year, conservatives were in an anxious mood: though pleased at the prospect of shifting the Supreme Court to the right, they were worried by the record of past Republican appointments. The refrain in conservative commentary, repeated with special intensity during the Harriet Miers affair, was: Not another Souter. Not another Kennedy. Not another O’Connor.
Trump reflects anger
A key to understanding the growing support for Donald Trump is the link between the mounting aggression we experience in our everyday life and escalating economic inequality. Here we are enjoying the season of Peace on Earth and Good Will to All, until we go shopping. That's when we risk getting beaten up by another shopper.
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