Last week, the Trump administration introduced a new “compact” for select universities — a deal that promises priority federal support in exchange for greater alignment with the administration’s agenda. The government is billing it as a great deal, while critics see it as political interference in higher education. This week, Archon Fung and Stephen Richer are joined by Joseph Fishkin, Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, to discuss this latest news and its implications for academic freedom and federal power.
About this Week’s GuestJoseph Fishkin is a Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, where he teaches and writes about employment discrimination law, election law, constitutional law, education law, fair housing law, poverty and inequality, and distributive justice. Before joining the UCLA faculty he taught for a decade at the University of Texas School of Law, where he was the Marrs McLean Professor in Law; he was also a visiting professor at Yale Law School.
Fishkin received his B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics, summa cum laude, at Yale, his J.D. at Yale Law School, and his D. Phil. in Politics at Oxford, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. After law school he clerked for Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Before starting law teaching he was a Ruebhausen Fellow at Yale Law School.
Fishkin’s latest book, The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution: Reconstructing the Economic Foundations of American Democracy (with Willy Forbath), was recently published by Harvard University Press. His writing has also appeared in various publications, including the Columbia Law Review, the Supreme Court Review, the Yale Law Journal, and NOMOS. He blogs at Balkinization, where he recently wrote about the proposed compact.
About Terms of Engagement
From rank-choice voting to reconciliation, American democracy is headline news. Let’s talk about it.
Join Harvard Ash Center's Archon Fung and Stephen Richer for a weekly conversation about the latest developments in American politics. Blending perspectives from both the political right and left, Terms of Engagement addresses breaking news, providing insights from research and practice to deliver a unique perspective you won’t hear anywhere else.
Contact Us
Send questions, ideas, and feedback to us at info@ash.harvard.edu.
About the Hosts
Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.
Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney. Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.
Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy. In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.” In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.” In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times. And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”
About the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a research center at Harvard Kennedy School, is Harvard’s hub for the study, discussion, and analysis of democracy. The Ash Center’s mission is to develop ideas and foster practices for equal and inclusive, multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy and self-government.
Music Credit: Straight to the Point, Music Media Group
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