- Professor
- Director Thomas Foley Institute
Biography
Biographical Information
Cornell Clayton is the Director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University, where he also serves as the C.O. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Political Science.
Clayton has written widely about American government, politics and law. His work on judicial politics has twice received the American Judicature Award from the American Political Science Association, and his research has been translated and republished in five languages. He is a frequent political commentator on local and national news media, and his research has been featured in the New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, and National Public Radio, among other places.
Clayton served for eight years as coeditor of Political Research Quarterly, the journal of the Western Political Science Association, and served as the Chair of the Law and Court Section of the American Political Association. Other distinctions include two Fulbright Fellowships, the Truman Scholarship, the Wayne N. Aspinall Chair and the Thomas S. Foley Distinguished Professorship. He has been a visiting fellow and lecturer at many institutes and universities around the world.
He came to WSU in 1992.
Education
- Ph.D. Phil. Politics, Oxford University
- M.A. Philosophy, Oxford University
- B.A. Political Science, University of Utah
Research Interests
Constitutional law and judicial politics, democratic political institutions, political polarization, civility and civil discourse, Washington state politics, normative political theory and questions of justice.
Recent Publications
- “The Republican Judicial Counterrevolution and the Trump Presidency.” With Mitchell Pickerill. In Joel D. Aberbach and Gillian Peele (eds). The Future of the American Right. (Palgrave McMillan, 2025); “Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee on Voting Rights.” With Michael J. Ritter, in Morgan Marietta (ed), SCOTUS 2021: Major Decisions and Developments of the U.S. Supreme Court (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2021); “Trump v. Mazars and Trump v. Vance on Presidential Subpoeas.” With Joseph Bolton. In Morgan Marietta (ed.). SCOTUS 2020: Major Decisions and Developments of the US Supreme Court. Macmillan Palgrave (2020); “Constitutional Choices: Political Parties, Groups, and Prohibition Politics in the United States.” With Aaron Ley. Journal of Policy History 30(4): 609-634 (2018); “The Roberts Court and Economic Issues in an Era of Polarization.” With Mitch Pickerill. Case Western Reserve Law Review 67(3):693-720 (2017).