John Taylor
Professor of Political Science
Louis L. Goldstein Professor of Public Affairs
Adviser, Pre-Law Program
E-mail: jtaylor2@washcoll.edu
Phone: (800) 422-1782, ext. 7284
Office: Daly 207
Education
- B.A., Dickinson College, 1964
- M.A., Princeton University, 1966
- Ph.D., Princeton University, 1972
Office Hours
MWF, 11-12, and TTH 1:00-1:30
Published Work
Right to Counsel and Privilege against Self-Incrimination
Press Release
New Book Examines Ongoing Conflict Between the Ideals of Public Safety and Civil LibertiesBiography
John B. Taylor, Chair of the Department of Political Science from 1997 to 2007, graduated from Dickinson College in 1964 and received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1972, the same year he joined the Washington College faculty. He is a specialist in American constitutional law and history and has published articles on these subjects in the Review of Politics and the Journal of Supreme Court History. He has been a guest lecturer on American law and politics at l'Université Pierre Mendès France in Grenoble, France, and the University of Hull in the United Kingdom, and in 2004 ABC-CLIO Press published his book, Right to Counsel and Privilege against Self-Incrimination: Rights and Liberties under the Law, as part of its America's Freedom's Series.
Professor Taylor is one of two pre-law advisers on campus, assisting students in planning an appropriate schedule of classes and in selecting law schools and preparing applications. Three of his courses introduce students to constitutional law. Constitutional Powers and the Judicial Process takes a close look at the Supreme Court as a political and legal institution and explores the central role it has played in balancing governmental power in the constitutional system. Civil Liberties examines the great issues of governmental power versus individual rights in such areas as freedom of speech, press, and religion, racial and sexual equality, and privacy. Law and Society considers issues of police tactics versus the rights of the accused, introduces students to the operating realities of the criminal justice system, and allows them to do field work with the States Attorney, the Sheriff's Department, or the Department of Parole and Probation.
Professor Taylor also teaches the basic Introduction to Politics and American Government courses and raises the great normative questions of politics in History of Political Thought and American Political Thought. In recent years he has supervised senior theses on such topics as Justices O'Connor and Ginsburg, the use of DNA evidence in criminal prosecution, the morality and legality of assisted suicide, and the debate over affirmative action. His basic goal as a teacher is to help students understand how politics really works and why politics really matters.
In addition to his professional pursuits, Professor Taylor enjoys time with his family, reading, classical music, and sports.