Constitutional Expert Discusses Presidential Crisis

As the House Judiciary Committee released President Clinton’s grand jury testimony and tapes of his questioning by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, constitutional law experts this week are gauging the implications of Starr’s report for the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.
One of those scholars — Washington State University political scientist Cornell Clayton — believes the long-term consequences may be profound. Of particular interest to Clayton are efforts by the congress and the judiciary to control federal prosecutions in Starr’s unfolding investigation.
A leading constitutional law expert, Clayton has written extensively about the independent counsel and the relationship between the White House, Department of Justice and federal courts. His two most important works, “The Politics of Justice” (1992) and “Government Lawyering: Presidential Politics in the Legal Bureaucracy” (1994), explore the issues of the separation of powers in detail.
Clayton’s particular area of expertise is federal prosecution. Recent New York Times, Washington Post, and National Public Radio news stories about the House Judiciary Committee inquiry have quoted the WSU scholar.
Clayton teaches constitutional law, civil rights and civil liberties, and edits “Law and Courts,” a newsletter of the American Political Science Association. He received his doctorate from Oxford University in 1990 and has taught at Washington State University since 1993.

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