Fault Lines’ Greatest Hits

December is traditionally the month when newspapers, journals, awards committees, and other organizations pick their top ten or fifty or one hundred favorite books, recordings, articles, movies, shows, you-name-its. We decided to list (not in any particular order) the posts from the past three-and-a-half years since we started this blog, that have proved the most prescient in regard to events of 2020. Enjoy!

Gerrymandering. We have addressed this ongoing issue, which affected Congressional elections this year, in:

Gerrymandering: Will It Ever End? (June 2017)
Gerrymandering: Here We Go Again—and Again and Again (August 2019)

The Census. The way the census has been carried out this year, the deadline for its completion, and who will be counted remain issues. We wrote about this in: Everybody Counts—More or Less (September 2017)

Pandemics. Yes, we even considered the relationship between a pandemic and the Constitution in:

What If the Plague Comes to America? (November 2017)
What Can Presidents Do If (They Claim) There’s an Emergency? (February 2019)
Coronavirus and the Constitution (February 2020)
To Be There Or Not To Be There? (June 2020)
Will You—Must You—Be Vaccinated? (August 2020)

Voting Rights. Expanding or limiting citizens’ right to vote is a perennial topic in our democracy and certainly was a factor in this year’s elections. We addressed it in:

Should You Be Allowed to Vote If You’ve Broken the Law? (December 2017)
Time (Off) To Vote? (March 2019)

Presidential Powers. This topic covers several areas, including the following:

Presidential Pardons. Some of President Donald J. Trump’s pardons, such as that of Michael Flynn, have caused considerable controversy. We raised this question in Pardon Me? (February 2018).
Presidential Firing Power. President Trump has fired an unusual number of his appointees, up until he left office. We talked about this in “You’re Fired!” “Oh, No, I’m Not.” (March 2018)
Lame Duck. The United States has an uncommonly long period between the date of an election and the date when the incoming president enters office, allowing the outgoing one considerable leeway. We discussed this in The King is Dead (November 2020).

The Electoral College. The presidential candidates’ race to acquire at least 270 Electoral College votes in November dominated the news for much of the year. We considered what to do about this institution in: