Fourth Essay Assignment

Choose one:

1. With reference to assigned readings and class discussions, explain the outcome of this week's "fast-track" vote in the House. What role is President Clinton playing, and what could he have done differently?

• Pro-fast-track
• Anti-fast-track
• White House Web site
• THOMAS
• AllPolitics

2. William Rehnquist, facing a late-life crisis, has just resigned as Chief Justice. (He is running off to Iowa to run a diner with Roseanne.) Whom should President Clinton nominate to replace him? Explain your criteria. Consider the issue of "confirmability" and ponder ch. 11 of Edwards and Wayne.

• Judicial Selection Monitor (conservative)
• Judicial Selection Project (liberal)

3. Explain a recent presidential decision on foreign policy or national security (e.g., supporting MFN for China). Why did the president make this decision? What institutional constraints did he face? Would another president have acted differently?

• State Department
• National Security Council

• Essays should be typed, stapled, double-spaced, and no more than three pages long. I will not read past the third page.
• Put your name on a cover sheet. Do not identify yourself on the text pages.
• Cite your sources. You may use either endnotes or parenthetical references to a bibliography. In either case, put your documentation in a standard format (e.g., Turabian or Chicago Manual of Style).
• Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you.
• Return essays by the start of class, Monday, 17 November. Essays will drop one gradepoint for one day's lateness and a full grade for two days' lateness. After that, the paper will receive a failing grade. I will grant no extensions without verification of illness or emergency.