The U.S. Congress can be traced to the founding and the debates in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, but to suggest that the Congress in the first decade of t

In some periods of American history, members of the legislative branch have been as influential, and sometimes more influential, than a particular president in

From the vantage point of the 2016 presidential election and the deepening polarization of American politics in recent decades, it is striking how much more dis

Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the United States. In a country with a rich history of racial animosities, Obama represents a notable devi

What is the role that norms play in the U.S. Congress? At a time of unprecedented partisanship and high-profile breaches of legislative norms in the modern Cong