Betsy McCaughey - Think Tank Scholar

Think Tank Scholar

In the late 1980s McCaughey briefly considered a career in television journalism, but opted instead for a position as a senior scholar at the Center for the Study of the Presidency, serving from 1989 to 1992. There, she wrote an article, book reviews, and a guest editorial for its journal, Presidential Studies Quarterly (PSQ), and an op-ed in USA Today advocating reform of the Electoral College method of electing the U.S. President. She testified at a July 22, 1992 hearing before the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, and helped produce a report suggesting constitutional amendments to fix flaws in the Electoral College.

McCaughey also wrote op-ed columns that appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and USA Today, in which she opposed plans involving local and state redistricting to comply with the Voting Rights Act, and criticized court ordered desegregation of schools in Connecticut and New Jersey. She also supported the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that he would not bend the law to match his conservative beliefs; supported a tobacco company in litigation before the Supreme Court; and praised the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey U.S. Supreme Court decision restricting abortion.

In February 1993, the John M. Olin Foundation funded a fellowship at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, for McCaughey to write a book on race and the legal system to be titled: "Beyond Pluralism: Overcoming the Narcissism of Minor Differences". McCaughey wrote op-eds over the next six months in The Wall Street Journal and USA Today in which she supported the 1993 selection of a jury from predominately white Republican white rural counties for the Memphis retrial of African American Democratic U.S. Representative, Harold Ford, Sr., and praised the 1993 Shaw v. Reno U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of five white voters who said their rights had been infringed by redistricting that had been done to comply with the Voting Rights Act.