Articles

A special slate of one-credit classes is helping first-year students and professors get to know one another during an unprecedented semester.

Professor Catherine Fisk explains why qualified immunity creates a too high a bar for victims of police violence

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says Judge Amy Coney Barrett has gone further than other SCOTUS candidates in refusing to answer questions

Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and tech-law expert James Dempsey assess the legal wrangling over the Trump administration’s attempted ban of the Chinese apps.

Professor David Singh Grewal, with Joshua P. Zoffer, explains why court reform for the sake of democracy becomes all the more urgent when faced by the prospect of a minoritarian majority on the Supreme Court

Professor Bertrall Ross discusses the mechanisms by which a majorly conservative U.S. Supreme Court would affect the sociopolitical landscape of the country

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes Democrats must use the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings as an opportunity to convey how much President Trump and the Republicans will undermine the rights of all Americans by putting Judge Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court

Lecturer Shanin Specter appears on the Court Radio Show to discuss tort issues related to COVID-19

Lecturer Shanin Specter discusses the president’s civil liability for Covid transmission

The joint UC Berkeley/Americorps initiative sends recent graduates to work in farm and forest communities across California to build resilience and mitigate climate change.

Ted Mermin, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, offers consumers tips on the complicated business of getting out of gym memberships

Professor Chris Hoofnagle discusses Prop 24 and says an opt-out system may not be perfect, but it is the only workable approach

Professor Pamela Samuelson predicts the usual right-left splits won’t apply in Google v Oracle

Professor Tejas Narechania says Google v Oracle poses two big questions for the Supreme Court

Professor Catherine Fisk says OSHA may feel themselves powerless to protect West Wing workers from exposure to the virus by the president

Lecturer Mallika Kaur asks what “defund the police” means in terms of response to domestic violence incidents, currently the single largest category of calls received by police?

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says conservatives on the Supreme Court are moving strongly toward creating a right of people to exercise their religious freedom to discriminate against others

Governor Newsom signs a whopping seven bills that focus on protecting residents’ civil, financial, and environmental rights — all driven by Berkeley Law clinics and centers.

Professor Orin Kerr predicts Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the Supreme Court will bring a considerable and rapid shift to the right

Lecturer Shanin Specter examines the president’s civil liability for Covid transmission, following his campaign fundraiser in Bedminster 

Jim Dempsey, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, discusses the legal cases around the sale of TikTok

The executive director of Berkeley Law’s Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, Trepczynski discusses race hierarchy and its far-reaching implications.

Professor Khiara Bridges says when public agencies share private information it can lead to serious unexpected consequences 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why no start of a new U.S. Supreme Court term ever has been like this one

Professors Bertall Ross & Kathryn Abrams discuss efforts by Republicans to reduce the number of votes cast by people of color, swinging a close election to incumbent President Donald Trump and away from Democrat Joe Biden

Professor john a. powell, Director of the Othering and Belonging Institute, says critical race theory has lifted up the racial gaze of America

Professor Christopher Tomlins digs deeply into the persona of the Virginia slave Nat Turner and examines the legacy of the 1831 rebellion he led.

Professor Bertrall Ross says replacing Justice Ginsburg with a woman with different ideology reinforces the idea that identity matters more than the substantive values that the individuals represent

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says adding Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court would make it the most conservative Supreme Court since the Lochner era

Rachel Johnson-Farias, Executive Director of the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice, says the judiciary has been attacking Roe v Wade with “death by a thousand cuts”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the disconnect between the nation’s highest judicial panel and the people who live with its rulings is starker than ever

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says Judge Amy Coney Barrett is far to the right of most in American society

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky advises Senate Democrats to focus on what Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation will mean for the Constitution, the country and for people’s lives

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, discusses Governor Newsom’s executive order banning sales of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035

Professor Orin Kerr discusses the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her legacy, and the impact a Supreme Court vacancy may have on the Presidential Election

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says telecommuting may be more politically palatable in the Bay Area, but policies such as road pricing and building housing near transit would go further to cut congestion and emissions.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains how Republican-appointed judges seem more inclined to advance the party’s interests than uphold the Constitution

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and UC Chancellor Howard Gillman warn that the addition of another conservative justice to the Supreme Court could be a disaster for Americans’ access to healthcare

Professor Amanda Tyler discusses Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s impact and legacy

Professor Bertrall Ross discusses the issues and concerns surrounding the upcoming election

Professor Khiara Bridges explains the history and importance of Critical Race Theory 

More than 100 Berkeley Law students work each year at the East Bay Community Law Center, helping to push forward myriad initiatives that serve disenfranchised people of color.

Professor Catherine Fisk explains the issues with the Labor Department’s proposal to adopt a shorter, simpler test for when employers may legally classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees who are covered by federal minimum wage and overtime law

Experts from all over campus are sharing their knowledge in a livestreamed video series, created soon after the pandemic emerged, called “Berkeley Conversations.”

Dean Erwim Chemerinsky advocates for an “open book” bar exam, as the California Supreme Court says no to “diploma privilege” 

The Policy Advocacy Clinic helped persuade California to become the first state to stop intercepting tax refunds, garnishing wages, and levying bank accounts for unpaid debt during the COVID-19 pandemic.