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Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses notable concurring opinions from the most recent Supreme Court term.

“Never before in American history has there been a president who has shown such disregard for the Constitution and laws of the United States.” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “It is imperative that there be an attorney general who will try to stop this, not facilitate it. Todd Blanche is clearly not that person, and his nomination should be rejected.”

“Popular constitutionalism reflects a simple ideal: The Constitution belongs not just to the courts, but to all of us. The American people can and should shape the meaning of the Constitution,” write Professors Joy Milligan and Bertrall Ross.

“It is ironic for the court to make this ruling during the week in which we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which was written as an objection to unchecked executive power,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“The disastrous war in Iran reveals the brilliance of the framers of the Constitution in creating a government based on separation of powers — and the folly in abandoning that framework.” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“A series of Supreme Court rulings this week share a disturbing theme: closing courthouse doors and leaving religious prisoners, cancer victims and asylum seekers with rights on paper but almost no way to enforce them,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“As we await the usual late-June flurry of decisions – some of them quite significant – I wanted to reflect on what I believe to be the most extraordinary June in the modern Supreme Court, which took place four years ago in 2022,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“Sometimes well-intentioned laws are unconstitutional,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “That is the case for a bill that recently passed the California Assembly to prevent children under the age of 16 from opening social media accounts.”

“President Donald Trump’s deal with the Department of Justice raises corruption to a level never seen before in this county,” write Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Burt Neuborne, founding legal director of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. “It can — and must — be stopped.”

“Much rightly has been written criticizing the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which effectively nullified Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But one point that has not received sufficient attention is the decision’s blatant inconsistency with the principle that federal courts should not alter the conduct of elections soon before they are to occur.”

“We must understand that what is too often minimized as isolated incidents stemming from a particular family’s so-called disputes is oftentimes a warning sign demanding evidence-based approaches to save lives,” write MallikaKaur, director of the Domestic Violence and Gender-Based Violence Practicum at Berkeley Law, and Julia Weber.

“Constitutional amendments that were adopted to protect the civil rights of Black individuals were used by the Supreme Court to deal a devastating blow to voting rights for people of color last month.” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“We must understand that what is too often minimized as isolated incidents stemming from a particular family’s so-called disputes is oftentimes a warning sign demanding evidence-based approaches to save lives,” write Mallika Kaur, the director of the Domestic Violence and Gender-Based Violence Practicum, at UC Berkeley School of Law and Julia Weber.

“For years, California courts ran an unconstitutional shadow detention system.” writes Chesa Boudin, executive director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center at Berkeley Law. “The mechanics were straightforward: Set bail at an amount the defendant cannot pay and the result is the same as ordering detention outright.”

“After all the court had done in its earlier decisions to limit the protection of voting rights, the one potent tool for protecting voting rights that remained was Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But as Kagan said, the court’s decision renders Section 2 all but a dead letter.”

“The Voting Rights Act is, simply put, one of the most important federal laws adopted during my lifetime,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“The Ten Commandments do not belong on the walls of public school classrooms. This was the conclusion of the Supreme Court in 1980, and that ruling is binding on every court in the country,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But in a stunning decision on April 21, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, by a 9-8 vote, upheld a Texas law requiring that the Ten Commandments be posted in every public school classroom. For many reasons, this decision is wrong.”

“The courts should simply hold that the War Powers Resolution requires the president to end our involvement in the war with Iran unless and until Congress authorizes it,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “This shouldn’t be — and isn’t — different than any other injunction on any administration to comply with the law.”

“The coming years will test which model of nonprofit control proves more sustainable in the AI economy: the socially oriented for-profit or the income-generating for-profit model,” write Professor Ofer Eldar and Mark Ørberg, assistant professor at Copenhagen Business School. That choice may shape how the next generation of AI companies balance safety, profit, and national power.

Dean Erwin Chemerinksy weighs in on a recent speech given by Justice Clarence Thomas in which he said that the rise of progressivism since the beginning of the 20th century has caused great harm. 

“Federal courts should not be used for collusive litigation. They should not handle cases where there is a manifest conflict of interest, which certainly exists when Trump would be settling suits with his Justice Department,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Burt Neuborne, founding legal director of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.

“Putting any industry above the law — especially one responsible for creating many of the greenhouse gas emissions that have helped fuel climate-related destruction of homes, businesses and whole communities — would be beyond dangerous,” writes Dave Jones, Director of the Climate Risk Initiative at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment. “If Big Oil gets its wish, it would be an injustice with lasting and cascading harm.”

“Chiles v. Salazar is not the first time the Supreme Court has had to deal with a First Amendment challenge to laws that regulate speech by professionals in advising clients and patients,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “What is striking about the decisions is their inconsistency.”

“Senate Democrats are absolutely right in doing everything they can, including holding up funding for the Department of Homeland Security, to impose limits on behavior by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But it is not enough.”

“However unpopular such companies are at the moment, they are being held liable for their speech and that is unconstitutional,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“Conservative justices constantly say the Constitution should be interpreted based on history and its text and its original meaning,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinksy. “All of these sources make the Trump executive order on birthright citizenship unconstitutional. The Supreme Court decision should be unanimous in striking it down.”

“Ever since the Supreme Court recognized birthright citizenship in 1898,  generations of Americans have accepted that the United States Constitution encodes an absolute rule that if someone is born on U.S. soil, they are a citizen, end of story,” writes Professor Amanda Tyler. “But fringe elements of American society have repeatedly tried to attack this fundamental rule.” 

“With all the political debate around cost-of-living, policymakers need to tell the whole story about housing costs,” writes Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment.

“The fate of the SAVE Act in Congress is uncertain despite the strong pressures from Trump,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But if enacted, it is sure to be challenged in the courts. While requiring photo identification for voting would likely be upheld, requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote seems clearly unconstitutional.”

“As is so often the case with ballot initiatives, Uber’s Protecting Automobile Accident Victims from Attorney Self-Dealing Act is being promoted in a very misleading manner, as if it will help automobile accident victims,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “In reality, it just will help businesses like Uber and automobile insurance companies.”

Dean Erwin Chemerinksy and Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy weigh in on Trump v. Cook and whether the President has the authority to remove a Federal Reserve Board governor.

“The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, aggressively championed by President Donald Trump, would be an unconstitutional restriction on the right to vote that would keep many citizens from voting—with little benefit for our electoral system,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinksy.

“President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have badly abused their authority in an effort to punish AI company Anthropic for not capitulating to their demands,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “It is one thing for the government to decline to contract with a company based on a disagreement over terms. It is something quite different — and illegal and unconstitutional — for the government to use its enormous power to retaliate against a company because of disagreement in a contract dispute.”

“In a state where the next outage is never far away, EVs offer something rare: cleaner air and greater resilience,” writes Ken Alex, director, Project Climate at CLEE. “California should stop treating them as a risk — and start using them as the grid solution they already are.”

Professor John Yoo weighs in on the Supreme Court’s decision on tariffs.

“The greatest significance of the tariffs decision is that it shows a court willing to say no to Trump on a significant issue,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“Federal grand jurors are showing that they will use their power wisely,” write Criminal Law and Justice Center Executive Director Chesa Boudin and UC Davis Professor Eric S. Fish. “We should embrace this trend and give them the procedural protections they need to serve as true checks on government power.”

“Although social media companies are in many ways villains that have not done nearly enough to protect children on their platforms, they nonetheless should not be held liable based on claims that they are creating addictive and harmful online environments,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

Minnesota should investigate and prosecute the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. State and local governments have the authority to prosecute federal officials who violate state law when their conduct is “objectively unreasonable.”

“Protecting youths online will be the defining internet policy battle of 2026,” writes Professor Catherine Crump.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky offers his perspective on the two Fourth Amendment cases before the Supreme Court.

“The Supreme Court has made a mess of the law concerning the Second Amendment,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“If he carries out his threat to cut off funds to jurisdictions that resist his immigration policies, President Donald Trump will violate the Constitution,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“There is a strong tradition of not using the military for policing in the United States. The image of soldiers roving the streets is something we see in countries with authoritarian governments, not this country,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “Police — and not soldiers — are trained to respect constitutional rights in policing and to use deadly force only if necessary.”

“When politicians, not instructors, control what is taught, academic freedom is dead,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“Freedom of speech by instructors must be protected, but it is not absolute and the 9th Circuit here misapplied the law in finding constitutional protection for expression where none was warranted,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“What will be the fate of Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, the Supreme Court’s 2020 landmark ruling protecting gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals from employment discrimination?” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky in his Courtly Observations column. “Over the last year, the court has failed to follow the logic of Bostock in upholding discrimination against transgender individuals.”

“If Renee Good had been killed by a state or local police officer rather than an ICE agent, her family could sue the shooter for excessive force and violating her rights,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But there is no law that allows federal officers to be sued for their constitutional violations.”

“In times of financial abundance, universities are often willing to support innovative, interdisciplinary programs that align with their goals,” write Berkeley Law Professor Alexa Koenig and Utrect University Professor Brianne McGonigle Leyh. “But during periods of austerity, such as the severe budget cuts currently affecting Dutch higher education or the United States’ open hostility to university-based research—especially on human rights and humanitarian issues— these initiatives are among the first to lose funding.”