Establishing a national minimum wage was a revolutionary idea that entailed a constitutional court crisis and impeachment hearings. And at the center of it all, was a woman - Frances Perkins, America's first female member of a U.S. Cabinet. 

In our research of the history of Congressional disciplinary actions, including expulsion and exclusion of members as well as their removal from committees, we discovered a general caution toward taking disciplinary action against behaviors at issue that occurred prior to members' election to office. The Congress's hesitance to discipline a member seemed particularly high when the behavior at issue occurred in plain view of the member's future constituents. Prior criminal activity, however, was an exception to this general trend.

Listen to our podcast to learn about the standards and circumstances in which other members of Congress have been disciplined.

The resignation of the director of one of the many bureaus in our federal government does not frontpage news make. However, controversy and clash over who should be counted in the 2020 U.S. does, just as it did in 1920. Similar to our time, a century ago including immigrants in the census was the issue.