OpEds

David A. Carrillo, executive director of the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law and Brandon V. Stracener a senior research fellow at the California Constitution Center, ask President Biden to commute the sentences of the 40 inmates currently on federal death row to life in prison without parole.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky weighs in on the free speech implications of the coming ban on TikTok in the United States.

“Underlying this case is the question of who should decide,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “Should it be left to transgender youths, their parents and their doctors to decide the course of medical treatment? Or should it be for state legislatures to make this decision?”

“Rubio may have good reasons for moving into the Cabinet, but improving his prospects in four years is not one of them. Indeed, the Cabinet has long been a graveyard for presidential contenders.,” writes Joshua Spivak a senior research fellow at Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center.

Joshua Spivak, a senior research fellow at Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center discusses how Nebraska uses a district-based system, where the state’s three congressional districts each get to cast their own separate Electoral College votes and how it could swing the election.

“Halloween 2024 is a reminder that the Food and Drug Administration is long overdue for taking an obvious action to make the holiday less scary: banning artificial food coloring,” writes Claudia Polsky, director of the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of California Berkeley School of Law.

“There is a strong argument that winner-take-all is unconstitutional because it effectively nullifies votes,” writes Dean Chemerinsky. “But if courts won’t declare it unconstitutional, Congress can adopt a law requiring that every state allocate its electors by the votes in some manner proportionate to the popular vote.”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky considers the question, “What role, if any, will the Supreme Court play in the November presidential election?”

Joshua Spivak, a senior research fellow at Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center weighs in on what voter turnout may look like in November.

“Protecting the public—not thrift—is the bar’s primary regulatory purpose, and its focus on cutting corners has arguably diluted the bar exam from the nation’s hardest to something that weakens public protection,” write Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center’s Executive Director David A. Carrillo and Senior Fellow Stephen M. Duvernay.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses the false and misleading statements made by Donald Trump about abortion during debate with Kamala Harris.

“Campus officials and faculty must themselves model the discourse we want to teach our students to emulate,” writes Dean Erwin Chermerinsky.

“It may seem strange and frightening to suggest thinking of a new Constitution at a time of great partisan division,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But that existed in 1787; in many of the states, the Constitution was just barely ratified.”

“I worry that our reverence for the constitution, and the understandable fears of the unknown, cause us to ignore the ways in which our governing document is contributing to the crisis now facing American democracy,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes about the October 2023 term Supreme Court cases he regards as “sleeper cases” that will have lasting impact.

“No Supreme Court reform that has a chance of being adopted anytime soon is likely to make a difference in the court’s composition,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But the presidential election will, and the focus in the months ahead should be on the enormous difference between who Mr. Trump and Kamala Harris would appoint to the court.”

“I am frequently asked about the most important thing to do in regard to changing the Supreme Court,” writes Dean Chemerinsky. “The answer is easy: win presidential elections.”

“The legal issues being raised by Republicans about a possible Harris nomination are just noise to generate confusion,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “They have no legal merit.”

“Judge Aileen Cannon’s stunning ruling dismissing the federal indictment against Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents is just wrong as a matter of constitutional law, but it can be easily overcome,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“Solving the problem of homelessness is difficult and expensive,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But putting people in jail for sleeping in public does absolutely nothing to solve homelessness or help people in need.”

At times, some have referred to the Supreme Court as “nine scorpions in a bottle,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. That metaphor seems especially appropriate this year, though I would describe them as “nine angry scorpions in a bottle.”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky weighs in on the Supreme Court’s Trump vs. United States decision.

“The Supreme Court just ripped away the biggest incentive that cities had to build more shelters and supportive housing for the homeless,” write Berkeley Law Professor Jeffrey Selbin and Jamie Suki Chang, associate professor of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley. 

“Two Supreme Court rulings on Friday that dramatically change the law are profound reminders that presidential elections matter enormously for all of us,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“My hope is that the Supreme Court won’t overrule Stone v. Graham and that it will instead apply it to declare the Louisiana law unconstitutional,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“The Supreme Court’s decision will have an immediate and devastating effect on those who would have benefited from the $6 billion fund,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “It would have provided compensation to over 100,000 victims of the opioid crisis, and the plan also would have provided significant funding for thousands of state and local governments to prevent and treat opioid addiction.”

“In Rahimi, the Supreme Court made the right decision for the wrong reasons,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday finally brought common sense to analyzing gun rights under the 2nd Amendment,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “It will save lives.”

“Whatever you might think of the outcomes of any particular case, the role of the jury in assigning blame or protecting the innocent is fundamental to the American understanding of justice,” write Berkeley Law professor Andrea Roth and Rutgers University professor of law J.D. King.

“Donald Trump will decry the verdict as being nothing but a political vendetta,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But nothing he says can erase the fact that a jury heard all the evidence and found him guilty on all counts.”

“Of course, the law of the First Amendment must be the starting point and must be adhered to, for public universities and for private schools that choose to follow it,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But we also must realize that it is often just the starting point and do a better job of thinking through how to apply it and what to do in these enormously difficult circumstances.”

“To limit and undo that damage and restore the rule of law, Republicans may have no choice but to respond in kind.” writes Professor John Yoo.

“AB 886 would create an arbitration process with newsrooms to establish a fee that the companies would pay to carry news articles,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “The experience of other countries shows that this type of legislation works.”

“The issue in Trump v. United States is whether Donald Trump can be prosecuted for his conduct in attempting to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential elections,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinksy. “The case should be easy and decided upon the most basic principle of the rule of law: no one, not even the president, is above the law.”

“If the Ninth Circuit panel’s ruling in favor of Uber is allowed to stand despite AB 5’s reasonable distinctions, it would open the door to countless challenges to laws regulating the workplace and endanger the ability of legislatures to pass laws protecting workers,” write Christina Chung, executive director of the Center for Law and Work at Berkeley Law and Erwin Chemerinksy, dean of Berkeley Law.

“Rather than making a clear choice between the charter or the state rules, the county clerk used both,” write Joshua Spivak and David A. Carrillo of the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law.

“The Supreme Court should not further criminalize homelessness,” writes Laura Riley, the director of the clinical program at Berkeley Law, and the author of “Homeless Advocacy.” “But whether it does or not, this case should put governments at all levels on notice that humane policies can help to reduce homelessness. We don’t have to let this crisis continue.”

Chesa Boudin, the founding executive director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center at Berkeley Law School, Brendan Cox , and Miriam Aroni Krinsky write about the Supreme Court case City of Grants Pass v. Johnson.

“The case likely will be important in defining the scope of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“Can the government make it a crime for a person to be homeless?”, writes Dean Chemerinsky. “The answer should be obvious to all, but few believe that is the conclusion the Supreme Court will come to when it decides Grants Pass v. Johnson, which will be argued on April 22.”

“Kaur’s case should enrage us all. We are not doing nearly enough to identify and support every high-risk domestic violence survivor and victim facing interlocking vulnerabilities,” writes Mallika Kaur author, lawyer and organizer who focuses on gender and minority issues in the U.S. and South Asia. She teaches at UC Berkeley School of Law, including on domestic violence law. She is the co-founder and executive director of the Sikh Family Center.

“With six justices on the court who both oppose abortion and want to limit the power of federal agencies, it is hard to predict the outcome of the mifepristone case, despite the clarity of the issues,” writes Dean Chemerinsky. “If the court overturns the FDA here, it will open the door to challenges against countless other drugs.”

“Simply put, we should want our government officials to be able to speak out against false, harmful or hateful speech,” writes Dean Chemerinsky. “The Supreme Court should hold that there is a crucial difference between government officials expressing their opinion and those threatening punishment and engaging in coercion.”

“The electorate and the legislature share the state’s lawmaking power, so the electorate’s power to propose and adopt tax laws is at least as broad as the legislature’s,” write David A. Carrillo and Stephen M. Duvernay of the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law.

“On February 15, Amazon followed the lead of two other major companies and made a radical argument: The National Labor Relations Board, which has existed for 88 years, is unconstitutional,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “If this argument is ultimately accepted by the Supreme Court, it will make virtually every federal administrative agency unconstitutional.”

“The city’s inability to provide shelter for the homeless is a failure of San Francisco leaders, not the courts,” writes Chesa Boudin, founding executive director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center at Berkeley Law School. 

“In overruling Roe, these justices said that the issue of abortion should be left to the political process and not the courts,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “Hopefully, they will follow this approach and not now be so hypocritical as to impose their views.”

“The best option is to leave content moderation to social media companies and encourage them to do a better job of it,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “This avoids the 1st Amendment problems of government regulation and the nightmare of unregulated social media.”

“For decades, conservatives have identified themselves as the champions of “law and order,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “It is ironic and perplexing that they could embrace a candidate who shows so little regard of the law.”

Dean Chemerinsky writes about the US Supreme Court case Trump v. Anderson.

“This case provides the court with an opportunity to show that it follows the law and the facts, not just the political preferences of the justices,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“The court should never fail to enforce the Constitution because of the political preferences of the justices or for the sake of political expediency,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But that is exactly what is likely to happen in Trump v. Anderson.”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes about some of the most important cases of the Supreme Court term.

Professor Jeffrey Selbin writes a commentary piece about the U.S. Supreme Court agreeing to hear a case that determines how and when cities can clear homeless camps.

“To keep Big Tech from becoming an unregulated AI oligopoly, we should turn to the playbook regulators have used to address other industries that offer fundamental services, like electricity, telecommunications and banking services,” write Tejas N. Narechania, professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and Ganesh Sitaraman, professor of law at Vanderbilt University. 

“In both the Boise and Grants Pass cases, the 9th Circuit found that laws that make it a crime to sleep in public impermissibly punish the status of being homeless,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “Criminal law exists to punish people who choose to break the law, not for conduct that is not a choice.”

“Voter turnout is always a big issue in an election, but the parties and candidates may have limited power in actually driving turnout,” writes Joshua Spivak a senior research fellow at Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center. “The previous few elections may be the best indicator of whether people will show up to the polls in November.”

“I do not recall ever facing a new year with such a sense of trepidation and even fear of what to expect,” writes Dean Chemerinksy. “The presidential election campaign of 2024 promises to be unlike any we have seen in American history, and it seems inevitable that the U.S. Supreme Court will play a large role. And the docket for the current term is filled with major issues about controversial matters, such as abortion, administrative law, gun rights and the First Amendment and social media.”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky takes a look back at the most significant developments from the Supreme Court in 2023.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes about the SCOTUS case United States v. Rahimi which involves a federal law that prohibits those under a restraining order in a domestic violence case from having guns.

AI companies should embrace the concept of stakeholder capitalism which says businesses should consider their stakeholder network—not just their shareholders—when making decisions, says Berkeley Law lecturer and alum Jesse Finfrock.

“In the best case, the code of ethics announced on November 13 is the first step toward meaningful reform,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “If not, it’s time for Congress to create an enforcement mechanism.”

“If the Supreme Court doesn’t reverse the 8th Circuit’s decision, it will leave little remedy for violations of one of our most important rights,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“A proposal seeking to change Alameda County’s recall law, linking recall procedure to state law may create rather than solve problems, dilute the local electorate’s direct democracy powers, and cede local control to the state,” write Joshua Spivak and David Carrillo of Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center. 

However it is structured, there must be an enforcement mechanism for the ethical code to have meaning, writes Dean Erwin Chemerinksy. “Trust us” is never an adequate answer, especially when dealing with matters of ethics.

Opinion by Dean Erwin Chemerinksy: “Nothing has prepared me for the antisemitism I see on college campuses now.”

Ken Alex, director of Project Climate at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment co-writes an opinion for The Hill on the need to rally the IMF toward bold climate action.

Dean Chemerinsky writes an opinion piece on why Judge Tanya Chutkan should not put a gag order on Donald Trump ahead of his trial in federal court.

“A president’s most long-lasting legacy is arguably the judges he appoints,” writes Dean Chemerinsky in his opinion piece. “Many will serve for decades after the president leaves office. Republicans have tended to recognize this much more than Democrats. That needs to change, and quickly.”

“While it may yield some monetary victories, American antitrust law is a very limited tool to restructure the uneven playing field of American business.” writes Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy.

Dan Farber, faculty director of Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment and Evan George, communications director of the UCLA Emmet Institute on Climate Change and the Environment write an opinion piece on the danger Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign poses to climate progress.   

“Overwhelmed by the paintings and awe-stuck by the artist who created them, I fumbled my few seconds with Mr. Botero. My memory is that I offered an anodyne appreciation of his work. If I could speak with him now, here is what I would say:,” writes Professor Laurel E. Fletcher in her opinion piece.

“In the last two years, the Supreme Court has dramatically moved constitutional law in a conservative direction,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“The federal government has a limited ability to increase the supply of housing, but it can do one simple thing to help buyers: First-time homebuyers should be eligible for a federally guaranteed, graduated-payment mortgage,” writes Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy.

“The laws in Texas and more than a dozen other states which ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors are stunning in their cruelty and are clearly unconstitutional, as infringing on the rights of parents to control the upbringing of their children,” writes Dean Chemerinsky.

Dean Erwin Chemerinky discusses DA Thien Ho’s lawsuit against the City of Sacramento for not adequately solving the problem of encampments of unhoused individuals. He writes: “The court can’t build more housing or more shelters or provide more social services. It is impossible to see how Ho’s suit will do anything to help.”

“The challenge is to find ways to combat the spread of false information that can harm public safety without jeopardizing freedom of expression,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “The government identifying false speech and notifying social media companies is a sensible way to address this problem.”

“California’s government became more accessible during the pandemic,” writes Professor Jennifer M. Urban, director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, co-director of Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and chair of the California Privacy Protection Agency’s board. “The state has a chance to maintain and grow accessibility for the public and for those who serve the public on boards, bureaus and commissions – but it requires prompt action.”

Dean Chemerinsky writes about the many legal actions against Trump and explains the potential consequences for each.

Ted Mermin, executive director of the Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice at Berkeley Law writes about the effects of the practice of  ‘poverty tows’ in California cities.

“Today, the CCPA no longer reflects the reality of consumer debt in America, and its approach to wage garnishment is in need of reform,” writes Berkeley Law Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy. 

“What is clear is that cities cannot make it a crime or a public nuisance for people to be homeless when there is not adequate shelter space,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“Officials targeted with a recall, the most personal of the direct democracy devices, are unsurprisingly unhappy about having to defend against it,” write Joshua Spivak and David Carrillo of Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center. “But voters should not be fooled when their targets complain about risks to democracy.”

Professor Kathryn Abrams writes about the defeat of Ohio’s abortion vote and Republicans implementation of other strategies to oppose pro-abortion citizen initiatives.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes about what the SCOTUS decision to eliminate affirmative action means for California schools.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes about unanswered questions following the Supreme Court rulings on labor and employment law.

“Streaming has given the studios one more way to exploit writers—and the writers are pushing back,” writes Catherine L. Fisk, faculty director of Berkeley Law’s Center for Law and Work.

“As schools strive to have a diverse student body after the court’s decision, much can be learned from the experience of states where affirmative action already had been eliminated,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. 

“Due to the failure to substantially reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in the U.S. and globally, we are marching steadily to an uninsurable future,” writes Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment.

“If city council members want to express their views — either in support for striking workers or in opposition — that is their constitutional right and part of the normal political process,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses the recent SCOTUS term. 

“California Gov. Gavin Newsom made the right choice on Friday, July 7, in announcing that he would not continue to fight for parole for Leslie Van Houten,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “Since 2016, parole boards have recommended her release from custody five separate times. Each time, the governor — twice Jerry Brown and three times Newsom — overruled that decision.”

“The Supreme Court should have ruled, like the lower courts, that the state has a compelling interest in stopping discrimination,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses the recent SCOTUS ruling on the Indian Child Welfare Act. 

“In striking down the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program, the Supreme Court ignored one of the most basic principles of law: When the text of a law is clear, it must be followed unless it is unconstitutional,” writes Dean Erwin Chemeninsky.

Professor Daniel Farber writes about what the SCOTUS affirmative action ruling means for California.

Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Sharon Inkelas, a distinguished professor of linguistics, associate vice provost for the faculty and special faculty to the chancellor on campus welfare at UC Berkeley, write about the attack on considerations of diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. 

“It is time for a powerful new approach that creates possibilities for students with perspectives and experiences across race and ethnicity; across socio economic status; across gender; and across rural and city centers alike,” write Berkeley Law Professor John Powell and Yasmin Cader, deputy legal director and the director of The Tone Center for Justice and Equality at the American Civil Liberties Union.   

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action in college admissions.

“Public schools in California — and in other states like Washington and Michigan — where affirmative action has been eliminated, must now be leaders and show how to achieve diversity without engaging in affirmative action,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinksy.

Dean Erwin Chemerinksy discusses how this session’s Supreme Court rulings on voting rights have broken with recent trends.

“A state government should not be able to sue the federal government just because it disagrees with a federal policy, writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

“Why don’t the Supreme Court justices understand that they would benefit greatly from an ethics code and an independent office to assess their ethical issues?,” writes Dean Chemerinsky.

“Just as cities don’t wait for rush hour to erect traffic lights, the state shouldn’t wait until widespread water scarcity strikes again to empower the Water Board to respond effectively,” write Nell Green Nylen, senior research fellow at the Wheeler Water Institute in the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law, Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute and Dave Owen, professor at UC College of the Law San Francisco. 

“The Biden administration crossed a constitutional Rubicon this week,” write Berkeley Law Professor John Yoo and Washington Fellow of the Claremont Institute Center for the American Way of Life, Robert Delahunty. “For the first time in our history, federal prosecutors have charged a former president.”

“All other judges in the country — state and federal — are bound by ethical rules,” writes Dean Chemerinsky. “It is inexcusable that the most important and powerful judges are not.”

Dean Chemerinsky writes about the Supreme Court’s decision on voting rights.

“We’re not advocating a vote for or against any of the educational quality measures, but we are in favor of clear constitutional commands,” write David A. Carrillo and Stephen M. Duvernay of the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law.

“The National Labor Relations Act was intended to provide clarity and solid ground on which employees and employers could resolve their differences,” write Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Professor Catherine Fisk. “With Thursday’s ruling, the justices have done the opposite, and workers will pay the price.”

“The long-term task and responsibility of those who believe in a more just criminal legal system are to educate the public to see these issues with greater clarity — and to mobilize that public to build institutions and infrastructure capable of supporting a society that is safe and just for all,” writes Chesa Boudin, executive director of Berkeley Law’s Criminal Law and Justice Center. “That work is now more important than ever. I look forward to the challenge of taking it on.”

“Make no mistake, deposits in the United States are insured whether the law says so or not,” writes Professor Krishnamurthy. “It is time to recognize this reality and adopt explicit and progressive insurance for large deposits.”

Professor John Yoo with Robert Delahunty, a Washington fellow of the Claremont Center for the American Way of Life, says ethics war on the Supreme Court is a warning for 2024.

“The decision is not remarkable in that it follows decades of precedent,” writes Dean Chemerinsky. “Its significance is that it did not impose significant new restrictions on states’ regulatory power. But given how readily the Roberts court has abandoned precedents and ruled in favor of business and against regulation, it is notable and welcome.”

“It is the responsibility of those who know her and that she respects to ask her to do a final act of great public service for California and the country: resign,” writes Dean Chemerinsky.

“There should be no First Amendment right to use speech to cause a reasonable person to fear for their safety,” writes Dean Chemerinsky. “Based on oral arguments in the Supreme Court on April 19 in Counterman v. Colorado, however, it appears that the justices are likely to make it much harder to prove that speech is a threat.”

“The ultimate liberty is the right to be left alone, and Dobbs established a clear mandate for state courts to define that right under their state constitutions,” write David Carrillo and Brandon V. Stracener of the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law. “This is an opportunity for states to abandon their flawed lockstep doctrines, reassert themselves as the primary guarantors of individual liberty, and restore the state–federal balance of power in this area of the law.”

“Litigants should not be able to handpick a judge who then can issue a nationwide injunction throwing the entire country into chaos,” writes Dean Chemerinsky.

“Ideally, the court, on its own, would adopt an ethics code for its members, writes Dean Chemerinsky and Dennis Aftergut. “The absence of ethical rules is an unnecessary self-inflicted wound. Absent the court reforming itself, Congress must act and impose one on the justices. One would hope that the court would not be so foolish as to declare unconstitutional a law that is meant to regulate it.”

“This is an issue for the FDA – not the courts – to decide,” writes Dean Chemerinsky. “One would hope that even the conservative Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade would recognize this and want to keep the federal judiciary out of the abortion issue. But given the anti-abortion views of a majority of justices, there is every reason to be very worried.”

“The Supreme Court has its lowest approval ratings in history,” writes Dean Chemerinksy and Dennis Aftergut. “Now, as much as ever, it is crucial that the justices make clear that they are not partisan hacks who just follow the Republican platform, but instead are committed jurists who follow the law. The recent decisions concerning mifepristone will give them just that opportunity.”

“The internet and social media provide instantaneous access to infinite information,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “My hope is that the Supreme Court will not step in to this enormously complicated landscape.”

“Judges like to exercise control and Merchan is undoubtedly upset at Trump blatantly disobeying him,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But the better course in this situation is to do nothing and let Trump speak.”

“With coordinated global reform, we can fight climate change while mining as sustainably as possible,” writes Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment. “We simply do not have an alternative if we are serious about tackling the climate crisis in an equitable and humane way.”

“The indictment of a former president of the United States is unprecedented,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But Donald Trump is unprecedented. There is much to be worried about in setting a precedent for the criminal prosecution of a former president. But it would be much worse to conclude that anyone, including the president, is above the law.”

“I know some disagree and claim a right to shout down speakers, writes Dean Chemerinsky. “But the only way my speech can be free tomorrow is to support protection for speech that I dislike today. I also am hopeful that there is a benefit in hearing views different from our own, though it can be unsettling and even painful.”

“Banks and regulators will make mistakes, and banks should be allowed to fail, writes Prasad Krishnamurthy, professor at Berkeley Law.” “We need a system in which shareholders and debtholders bear the cost of failure, depositors are made whole and don’t panic, and banks and depositors pay for the insurance they receive at rates that are proportional to their risk.” 

“For decades, conservatives have preached judicial restraint and deference to the political process, write Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Professor Catherine Fisk of Berkeley Law. “But that doesn’t seem to apply when they don’t like government regulation of business. They will surely use the 9th Circuit’s new decision and its fallacious reasoning to challenge a myriad of essential regulations needed to protect workers and consumers.”

“L.A. and other local governments should be required to loosen development and zoning restrictions near rail stops, eliminating nitpicky requirements and endless hearings,” writes Ethan N. Elkind, director of the climate program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. “With the region experiencing a major housing shortfall and sky-high prices that have pushed lower-income residents to other regions and states or, in too many cases, the streets, allowing more dense, accessible housing is a humanitarian need as much as a transit one.”

Dean Chemerinsky discusses the continued conservative attacks on abortion rights.

David Carrillo and David A. Kaiser of the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law write, “Supporters of increased affordable housing think a recently proposed initiative constitutional amendment will generate increased state power to impose building mandates on local governments. That’s unlikely to happen, because a new constitutional right to adequate housing has dim prospects in the courts.” 

“This month, the leaders of Los Angeles have the opportunity to join other jurisdictions that have reformed or eliminated the deeply troubling cash bail system,” Dean Chemerinsky and co-authors Miriam Arony Krinsky and Anthony Kline write. ” If they don’t, the courts should act to address a flawed and disturbing bail system that simply keeps those without resources in jail without any public safety benefit.”

No matter what the U.S. Supreme Court does in the cases involving the Biden administration’s student loan relief plan, there is sure to be a major effect on many people’s lives and on the law, writes Dean Chemerinsky.

David Carrillo and David A. Kaiser of the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law write, “if the U.S. Supreme Court abrogates Obergefell, as it did Roe, then the now-dormant Proposition 8 text in the California constitution will once again ban same-sex marriage in California.”

Professor Jonathan Glater writes about the pair of cases challenging the Biden administration’s student-debt relief program.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Dennis Aftergut, former federal prosecutor and currently of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy, write “The failure of the framers to recognize the problem of domestic violence or the related danger of allowing abusers access to guns should not be permitted to prevent public protection from gun violence today. Women will needlessly die because of the Fifth Circuit’s misguided decision.”

“Why must we wait for the next death of another unarmed Black man to galvanize the public?” writes Dean Chermerinsky. “The problems are well-documented and many solutions are apparent. If the courts and the legislatures continue to do nothing, nothing will change.”

Dean Chemerinsky writes about the question of when state governments have standing to sue the United States.

Mark Cohen, senior fellow and director of the Asia IP Project at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology writes about the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed ban of non-compete agreements in America and argues non-compete agreements are critical in protecting US trade secrets.

“Sometimes an especially momentous U.S. Supreme Court term is followed by a quieter year with fewer blockbuster decisions,” writes Dean Chemerinsky. “But that is not what we should expect when the court hands down its rulings for this term in spring 2023.”

“It’s long past time for all Supreme Court proceedings to be livestreamed over video and archived, as is done in many federal appellate courts around the country,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “Yet the high court has traditionally refused to allow any broadcasting of audio or video of its proceedings.”

 

“The five conservative justices based their decision not on the purpose of Title 42, which is to stop the spread of a communicable disease, but on their partisan agreement with conservatives on immigration issues,” writes Dean Chemerinksy. “We should expect better of the court than that.”

“Affordable housing, not handcuffs, is the only humane, effective and lawful solution to homelessness,” writes Jeffrey Selbin the Chancellor’s Clinical Professor of Law and co-director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic at the UC Berkeley School of Law.

“Revising the Electoral Count Act will not remedy other problems in our electoral system, especially the many state laws designed to disenfranchise minority voters,” writes Dean Chemerinsky. “Congress must also pass legislation to further protect voting rights, but that seems unlikely given the likelihood that Senate Republicans would filibuster such a bill.”

 

“Does a state supreme court have the power to find that an act of the state legislature violates the state constitution? The answer to that question should be clear and obvious, but the conservative justices of the Supreme Court expressed doubt about it at oral arguments in Moore vs. Harper on Wednesday,” writes Dean Chemerinsky. “It is not hyperbole to say that the future of American democracy may turn on the court’s answer.”

“The Constitution and American democracy would not survive another four years of Trump being president,” writes Erwin Chemerinsky, dean and professor of law at the UC Berkeley School of Law. “We now have Trump’s own words to prove it.”

“There is always a tension between liberty and equality. Any law that prohibits discrimination limits the freedom to discriminate.” writes Dean Chemerinksy.

Dean Chemerinsky writes about two arguments in the Supreme Court.

Berkeley Law’s dean Erwin Chemerinsky, along with University of Wisconsin’s Law School dean Daniel Tokaji, write about the ABA’s proposal to eliminate standardized tests for law school admissions. “At a minimum, we need more study and more data on the potential impact of such a radical change in admissions standards to avoid potential consequences to diversity, equity, and inclusion that are the opposite of what is intended,” write Chemerinsky and Tokaji.

“Of all the potentially momentous cases on the Supreme Court’s docket this term, the one that frightens me most is Moore v. Harper. It is not hyperbole to say that the future of American democracy could be determined by this decision,” writes Dean Chemerinksy.

Dean Chemerinksy writes, “The great complexity of free speech issues on campus was revealed this semester at Berkeley Law. How are the free speech rights of a student group to not invite speakers with particular views to be balanced against the desire to have all viewpoints expressed and have no one feel excluded?”

David Carrillo and Stephen M. Duvernay of the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law write “There is one major disadvantage from making it difficult to remove judges, through rules or culture (or both): You can be stuck with a bad actor for life.” 

“Lowell claimed 1920s Jewish quota was intended to increase diversity by avoiding concentrations of Northeastern city dwellers,” writes David B. Oppenheimer, law professor at Berkeley Law and James N. Bierman, a former assistant dean of admissions at Harvard Law School and a lawyer in the District of Columbia. “As the Supreme Court plans to take up affirmative action, his policies are being cited in an effort to keep Black and Latino students out of Harvard.”

 

 

 

“Either Harvard needs to take a hard look at cultural bias in its admissions process, or Asian applicants to Harvard need to spend less of their scarce time on academics and more on personality development,” writes Prasad Krishnamurthy, professor of law at U.C. Berkeley School of Law.

“The long history of racial discrimination in America and current inequalities in educational opportunity make affirmative action essential,” writes Dean Chemerinsky. “Affirmative action works.”

 

Lecturer Shanin Specter and attorney Robert A. Clifford write in their OpEd, “Now, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has imposed $201 million in fines against Boeing and its CEO for misleading investors about the safety of the planes involved. However, there is still a need for criminal investigations into Boeing CEOs Dennis Muilenburg and David Calhoun.”

“It’s clear that the conservative justices regard race discrimination in voting as a thing of the past and therefore seek to limit or eliminate the Voting Rights Act,” said Dean Chemerinsky. “If the court follows this path, it will further limit protections against race discrimination in our electoral system.”

“As the Supreme Court begins its new term on Monday, it’s clear that the court’s majority is determined to move the law much further to the right.” writes Dean Chemerinsky.

“The October 2021 term was one of the most momentous in history: The court overruled Roe v. Wade, greatly expanded gun rights, aggressively protected free exercise of religion and significantly limited administrative agency power”, Dean Chemerinsky writes. “There is no doubt that the coming term, too, will be filled with blockbuster decisions.”  

Dean Chemerinsky writes, originalism is in its ascendancy on the Supreme Court. In case after case in the last term, the conservative justices based their decisions on their cramped reading of American history.

Originalism is primarily about how courts should interpret the Constitution, writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. That leads to an obvious threshold question: How did the Framers intend the courts to do this?

 

 

Voters should see through the “reform” sham to the truth: Recalls have little to do with hyperpartisanship, and under cover of reforming the recall, the Legislature is stripping power from voters, write David A. Carrillo and Joshua Spivak of the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law.

The legislature is trying to say “look, we did reform the recall,” but what this really means is “sucks to be you, general law cities,” say Stephen M. Duvernay and Joshua Spivak of the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes The California Legislature should strengthen the Racial Justice Act, passed two years ago to discourage racial bias in sentencing. He says a bill on the Senate floor would do just that, but it still needs work.

“There is much to celebrate,” write Professor Jonathan D. Glater and co-author UC Irvine School of Law Professor Dalié Jiménez. “And then there is the big picture, which remains grim. This mass cancellation – politically unimaginable just five years ago – is not the end of the student loan crisis.”

Savala Nolan, executive director of the Center for Social Justice writes that Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan doesn’t do enough for black Americans. “I don’t begrudge anybody having their loans forgiven under this new policy even if I won’t get relief; I do, however, lament the administration’s failure to properly weigh the role that wealth plays, or should play, in student loan forgiveness. I mean wealth as distinct from income–wealth meaning assets that can be passed from generation to generation.”

“It’s easy to believe that locking people up for longer periods of time makes us safer,” write Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, former Los Angeles County district attorney Gil Garcetti, and Miriam Aroni Krinsky, executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution. “But there is no evidence that extreme sentences improve public safety.”

“The Electoral Count Reform Act is a major and necessary step forward. The perfect cannot be allowed to be the enemy of the good,” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and co-authors Laurence H. Tribe and Dennis Aftergut write of the legislation now under consideration in Congress. “But given the reality of the election-denying officials and battleground state legislature majorities, Congress should not allow the good that the current reform measure achieves to potentially be swallowed by state representatives who would enact undemocratic power grabs that all of us, including our federal legislators, might wish we didn’t have to see.”

“Senate Bill 1149 would create a presumption against secrecy in civil litigation in cases involving a defective product or environmental hazard that ‘has caused or is likely to cause significant or substantial bodily injury or illness or death,'” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes of legislation now under consideration in Sacramento. “This is a commonsense and long-overdue reform.”

“The proposal before the Senate represents an excellent beginning. It must be strengthened to protect democracy in the final stages of selecting a president. But it’s equally vital to remember that not even a perfect way of counting the electoral votes at the tail end of the process can overcome unfair and undemocratic obstacles to casting ballots at the front end,” write Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, Harvard Professor Emeritus Laurence Tribe, and former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut. “Our democracy will not be secure until we enact broader protection for voting rights.”

David A. Carrillo and Brandon V. Stracener of the California Constitution Center write that if proposed state laws copying the citizen enforcement mechanism of Texas’ S.B. 8 survive, one might eventually turn up on the ballot as an initiative, posing “a grave threat to a minority group, who will fail to defeat the proposition because (as a minority) they lack the votes.” 

“It’s ridiculous to think that we should look to the laws of 1791 and 1868 to ascertain whether there should be a right to public prayer or abortion.” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of the mindset governing the flurry of recent decisions from the conservative-dominated court. “It’s highly doubtful that we would even want to follow certain practices enshrined in the Constitution.”

“The new California law, like the Texas law, limits how a defendant can challenge its provisions in court, but it is not immune from review in the courts,” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes of new legislation which authorizes private citizens to file civil suits against gun makers and sellers in three circumstances and is based on Texas’ law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. “Once challenged, courts should uphold the regulations as reasonable and consistent with the Second Amendment.”

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and a co-author outline the dearth of even attempted recall of state judges, pointing out that then-Supreme Court Justice Rose Bird, ’65 didn’t face a recall, but was instead not retained by voters in the 1986 general election. “A once-cumbersome and ineffective judicial discipline resulted in a substantial constitutional reform, which produced a far-more-effective discipline system centralized in the Commission on Judicial Performance,” they write. “Although the voters have always had the option since 1911 to recall any bench officer, they have done so only rarely, and never at the appellate level. ” 

“The conservatives on the court turned their ideological beliefs into constitutional doctrine,” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes. “This is not the culmination of conservative judicial activism, this is a court that is just getting started.”

“Someday, when there is a liberal Supreme Court, it likely will overrule Dobbs and again recognize a constitutional right to abortion. But in the years and perhaps decades until that happens, abortion will be the defining political issue for the U.S.,” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes. “It is unclear what that will mean for our political system … The central question in the abortion debate is who should decide.”

“It is stunning how far and how fast the conservative justices have moved to overrule constitutional law principles in a single week,” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes about the Supreme Court’s recent decision in the Kennedy vs. Bremerton School District case involving prayer in schools. “It’s clear that they would have decided countless cases over the last half-century differently from their predecessors, and have no hesitation eliminating precedents they don’t like. The implications for all of our rights and the society we will live in is staggering.”

While much is written about the potential promise of quantum computers, “their simpler cousins — quantum sensors — are here now and improving at a rate that demands urgent attention,” writes Professor Chris Hoofnagle and a co-author. “Strategists must understand the new capabilities that quantum sensing will provide and start planning countermeasures today.”

“Precedent and the principle of stare decisis are supposed to limit judicial discretion and provide stability to the law. But time and again, as in this decision, the conservative justices are willing to overrule the precedents they dislike,” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes. “They are motivated by carrying out the Republican platform, not a judicial philosophy or an interpretative methodology. The only question is how far they will go.”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky calls the Supreme Court’s ruling that a New York gun-control law is unconstitutional “by far, the most expansive reading of the Second Amendment in American history,” and that it will put a vast number of laws regulating firearms in jeopardy. “Striking down a century-old New York law and expanding gun rights is stunning judicial activism,” he writes.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that the U.S. House committee hearings examining the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol has convinced him the U.S. Department of Justice should bring criminal charges against Trump. “I do not minimize the difficulty of prosecuting a former president or of fairly trying one. Nor do I underestimate the risks of doing so,” writes. “But the central tenet of the rule of law is that no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States.”

 The U.S. Supreme Court “is basically cutting the establishment clause out of the Constitution,” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes about the court’s holding that the state of Maine is constitutionally required to subsidize religious education when it pays for private secular education.

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and a co-author analyze why the Supreme Court of California has such a high rate of unanimous decisions, concluding that the court’s culture of consensus-building is largely responsible. 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that Republicans are using the Second Amendment as “a false fig leaf” to avoid backing new gun regulations. The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear, he says, that the right to bear arms enshrined in the Constitution does not preclude many needed reforms. 

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and two co-authors  track the evolution of California’s abortion law in light of the impending decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. 

With California already behind on its climate goals, the state’s pending decision on whether to list the iconic western Joshua tree as a threatened species could imperil progress further, by making it impossible to build large-scale solar projects in the state’s vast deserts, writes Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Dennis Aftergut of Lawyers Defending American Democracy argue the U.S. Supreme Court’s originalist interpretation of the Second Amendment “is robbing us of our safety and our children” as an obstacle to sensible gun control legislation. 

In a new decision this week, the U.S. Supreme Court court has made it virtually impossible for those whose rights are violated by federal officials to sue, no matter how egregious the constitutional violation or the injury, Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes.

“My sense is that now, more than ever, our country and our world are going to need lawyers to uphold the rule of law and ensure justice,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, telling this year’s graduates to be inspired, not discouraged, by their experience over the past few years. 

Professor Rebecca Wexler, with U Chicago Law’s Professor Aziz Huq, writes, in an era of medication abortion and remote medicine, states’ ability to clamp down on abortion access turns partly on their ability to identify who is seeking such care. Tech companies can make that harder, or easier.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, with federal law clerk Andrew Chemerinsky, writes the law is clear: The social media companies cannot be punished for being the sites where racist speech was expressed by a deeply disturbed and violent individual

Matthew Stanford, California Constitution Center Senior Research Fellow, explains why only time will tell if the court is in fact prepared to lift its thumb entirely from the pro-arbitration scale

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, with Andrew Chemerinsky, writes it is urgent that the Supreme Court justices block Texas HB 20 from going into effect and declare it unconstitutional

Professor Peter Menell, with Dennis Aftergut of Lawyers Defending American Democracy, writes Sen. Hawley appears ready not only to undo property and free speech rights, but also to bust a foundation of America’s international trade

 

David A. Carrillo, Executive Director of the California Constitution Center, and senior research fellow Allison G. Macbeth, explain how the reasoning in the leaked draft Supreme Court opinion in ‘Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization’ can also be applied to void other federal liberty protections such as contraception and interracial and same-sex marriage

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky examines the potential consequences of the Supreme Court’s apparent intention to overturn Roe v Wade

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v Wade is right-wing Republican politics masquerading as law

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and NYU Professor Burt Neuborne write the core principle underlying the First Amendment is that government cannot punish speech because it disagrees with its viewpoint, but that is exactly what Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature have done to the Disney corporation for having dared to oppose legislation limiting discussion of gay issues in Florida’s public schools

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes federal Judge Mizelle’s misguided mask mandate decision is only the latest example of a bad practice that undermines orderly judicial processes and should be rejected by both sides of the partisan divide

Mridula Raman, Clinical Supervising Attorney at the Death Penalty Clinic, discusses the All Writs Act and if it can authorize prisoner transport in habeas proceedings

Savala Nolan, Executive Director of the Henderson Center for Social Justice, offers words of advice and wisdom to women of color, and other marginalized people, graduating law school

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky expresses that creating meaningful checks and balances for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office is long overdue

Lecturer Mallika Kaur writes, in order for the VAWA to truly positively affect everyone who has experienced gendered violence, it must openly examine the biases faced by minorities and provide support to grassroots initiatives

Professor Russell Robinson, Faculty Director, Center on Race, Sexuality & Culture, writes while Will Smith slapping Chris Rock will undoubtedly be the most talked about moment from the 2022 Oscars, there was another momentous occurrence at the awards show that not nearly enough people have recognized

Erwin Chemerinsky writes college campuses — particularly law schools — should be places where all ideas and views can be expressed

Wai Wai Nu, visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Human Rights Center, explains the meaning of the U.S. government defining the crimes perpetrated by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya people as a genocide.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, with Dennis Aftergut, counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy, suggest the Supreme Court subject itself, for the first time, to a judicial code of conduct

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses how upcoming hearings on President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee will provide an opportunity to help strengthen public confidence in the Supreme Court

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, writes that rail is slowly transforming key parts of Los Angeles once again back into a railtown

Lecturer Shanin Specter explains his theories on how the war in Ukraine can end

Victor Peskin, Senior Research Fellow at the Human Rights Center, explores the formidable obstacles that stand in the way of actually holding Russian President Putin and his inner circle to account for crimes perpetrated by Russian forces in Ukraine

Dean Erwin Chemerinksy writes U.S. Supreme Court could make a significant ruling on the EPA’s authority to fight climate change—or not

Professor Holly Doremus and UC Davis Professor Rick Frank offer recommendations for revising California’s antiquated water laws

Rebecca Golbert, Executive Director of the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, writes about her personal grief over the situation in Ukraine

Lecturer Mallika Kaur highlights the life of Justice Ajit Singh Bains, one of India’s finest jurists and human rights defenders, who recently passed away

Louise Bedsworth, Director of the Land Use Program at the Center for Law Energy & the Environment and senior advisor to the California China Climate Institute, discusses what steps California has taken to help halt climate change which will make life better for Californians, but also create a model for the rest of the world.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday to reinstate a congressional district map drawn by the Alabama Legislature serves as an effort by the conservative justices to help Republicans in the midterms

Savala Nolan, Executive Director of the Henderson Center for Social Justice, writes that very often, white people and their efforts disappoint her and says if we want cooperative, connective transformation it’s time to increase the heat

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains the reasons why Justice Breyer is a model for all who sit on a judicial bench

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky comments that there are times when the stewards of our system, like Justice Breyer, must put the good of an institution they love, and of the country they love, above their own interests 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses two cases about affirmative action involving Harvard and the University of North Carolina and says that the removal of the affirmative action program would allow the effects of historic discrimination in admissions

Professor Catherine Fisk discusses how in an effort to support and protect essential workers and small businesses, California has introduced the FAST Recovery Act which ensures shared responsibility between franchisors and franchisees for legal compliance 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that, despite students becoming more dispirited and losing faith in the Supreme Court, they are reminded that there have been other bleak times in constitutional law, and suggests they direct their focus on other avenues for change

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy comments that the California’s Employment Development Department’s clawback program is creating debt for some Californians who cannot prove they are working or seeking work, which can further push Californians into poverty

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg explores the alarming decrease in accessibility of hospice care despite the increase in death and awareness of the importance of end-of-life care during the pandemic

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the Biden administration’s vaccination mandates are clearly legal, but the politicization of the pandemic and vaccines makes it doubtful whether the Supreme Court will uphold them

Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon, with Berkeley Professor Mark Brilliant, writes there’s a forgotten liberal solution to the school system issues highlighted by the pandemic: vouchers 

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Stephen M. Duvernay explain that California cities have no power to become breakaway republics, and Oroville’s stunt to become a “constitutional republic city” because of unhappiness with the ongoing state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic is not a thing

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes meaningful police oversight will need to come from the political process, from Congress and from state and local governments, rather than from the Supreme Court

Lecturer Mallika Kaur writes, after a year of unprecedented protests, farmers and agrarian laborers in India have won an unprecedented victory and are now poised to change the whole game

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses the Supreme Court’s decision to not block Texas law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy which goes against Roe v Wade

Matthew Stanford and Brandon V. Stracener, California Constitution Center Senior Research Fellows, explain why it’s time to abandon monitoring software and the traditional closed-book bar examination model itself 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is the most important abortion case to come before the Supreme Court in almost three decades

Professor Jonathan Gould argues the standard case against filibuster reform misses an important asymmetry between the two major political parties

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse on all counts sends a chilling message about the acceptability of vigilantism

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Brandon V. Stracener examine the idea of creating a new licensed legal paraprofessional for limited practice and say rushing to implement a paralawyer program without public confidence that adequate oversight is ready could further degrade already-low confidence in legal discipline

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg discusses how one law is responsible for decades of sexual assault in the military going unpunished 

Professor Catherine Fisk says filmmaking was the original gig economy, and reflecting on how the movie business dealt with solving problems of pay and portable benefits provides lessons for today

Professor Russel Robinson urges Dave Chappelle’s to use his talent to recognize, respect and champion all Black people, including the Black LGBTQ community

Lecturer Mark LeHocky discusses the steps that improve settlement efforts that will save time, resources and relationships.

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Stephen M. Duvernay examine proposed reforms to the state’s process for recalling statewide officers

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy explains why the fee to cash checks is too high and argues that consumers should instead pay a much lower, flatter fee

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why the Supreme Court debate over Texas’s SB8 is about nothing less than whether every state must follow the Constitution — or whether a state can be permitted to make a mockery of it

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy suggests allowing the U.S. Postal Service to offer check-cashing services for a few dollars a check will pay for Congress’s stimulus measure and put $2 billion a year in the pockets of the most financially vulnerable Americans

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, with Laurence H Tribe, Jeffrey Abramson and Dennis Aftergut, explains why SB 8 not only stripped Texan women of their rights under Roe v Wade, but made a mockery of the US constitution and the supremacy of the federal courts

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the Biden administration is hypocritical in simultaneously imposing a moratorium on the federal death penalty and urging that the Supreme Court reinstate the death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

David Carrillo, Executive Director of the California Constitution Center, with Joshua Spivak, advises voters and elected officials to consider the different options for potential recall reform and take a hard look to make sure they do not make the system worse

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the Supreme Court’s conservative majority is poised to reshape constitutional rights and protections in ways this nation has not seen in generation

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes it’s not a coincidence that so many justices are speaking publicly about the court, its reputation, and its processes

Professor Amelia Miazad and Dave Curran, executive director of Paul, Weiss’ new ESG and Law Institute (with which the Business in Society Institute is the inaugural academic partner), write legal teams can’t wait for legal education to catch up – they need to hire people now who have ESG knowledge and skills

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy explains what economists call the “Great Gatsby curve” and offers ways to avoid a dystopian future with wide and permanent economic inequality

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg writes about her experience putting her father to rest.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Professor Burt Neuborne suggest abortion providers call Texas’ bluff and say it’s time for every Texas abortion provider to demand antiabortionists show their cards

Louise Bedsworth, Director of the Land Use Program at the Center for Law Energy & the Environment and senior advisor to the California China Climate Institute, explores three important facts about our changing climate this summer of cascading climate disasters has put in stark relief 

Mark Cohen, senior fellow and director of the Asia IP Project at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, explains why President Biden’s proposal to waive all IP rights related to COVID-19 is “toothless virtue-signaling at best — and dangerous economic capitulation at worst”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky suggests the Supreme Court justices stop acting like “partisan hacks” if they don’t want to be perceived that way

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the Supreme Court’s refusal to block the Texas abortion law opens the door to insidious copycat laws that could be used to attack other constitutional rights

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy explains the costs of an individual’s decision to remain unvaccinated on children, disadvantaged communities, people in poorer countries, vaccinated individuals and funders and patients of the health care system

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why matter what happens in the recall election on Sept. 14, the recall system prescribed by the California Constitution makes no sense and needs to be fixed

Dr. Rohini Haar, Human Rights Center Research Fellow, with Nick Robinson, senior legal adviser at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, writes it’s up to California to lead the way in support of a coherent national policy on less lethal weapons — their manufacture, procurement and use — that better protects protesters and the public

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy, with Emma Elizabeth Gonzalez, directing attorney at the Public Law Center in Orange County, explains why justice in debt-collection cases is one-sided and says the state should guarantee the right to a lawyer

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky suggests voters bring a lawsuit, ideally directly in the California Supreme Court, where justices could declare unconstitutional the method of choosing a successor if the governor is recalled

Lecturer Mallika Kaur interviews Blaine Bookey, whose successful case against the DOJ on behalf of a Salvadoran woman who fled domestic violence and was seeking asylum, has brought some hope to survivors of gender-based violence

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Brandon V. Stracener examine a number of concerns, for both Democrats and Republicans, related to the California recall election

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Professor Aaron S. Edlin explain why the California recall election violates basic election principles and should be declared unconstitutional

Professor Jonathan Gould, with Harvard Law Professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos, explores democracy reforms Congress could pass right now—even with the filibuster still in place

Professor Sonia Katyal explores why, when it comes to LGBTQ equality, the International Olympic Committee and its American counterpart, the US Olympic Committee, still have amends to make

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes policies requiring vaccination against COVID-19 need not include, and should not include, exceptions for those who have religious objections to vaccinations

An essay from Savala Nolan’s new book, Don’t Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender and the Body, about the role racism played in her father’s life and death, is excerpted

Professor Frank Partnoy discovers just how easy it is to buy cryptocurrencies and crypto assets — and just how hard it is to get out

Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute, writes modernizing water rights information is a critical step toward enabling California to manage resources and plan for a drought-ridden future.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains the significance of the Supreme Court decision protecting the free speech of students

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision reversing Bill Cosby’s conviction reminds us that even those who commit despicable crimes are protected by the Constitution

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes legal arguments against D.C. statehood are really a partisan fight

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes religious beliefs do not provide an exemption from civil rights laws and cannot be used as an excuse for discrimination

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the Biden administration is making a serious mistake in placing the self-interest of the Justice Department ahead of the people’s right to know if former Atty. Gen. William Barr acted to cover up Donald Trump’s possible engagement in obstruction of justice

Dean Erwin Chemersinky cautions that the Supreme Court’s granting of review of a Mississippi law that prohibits abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy should frighten all who believe that women should have the right to reproductive autonomy

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the Supreme Court needs to provide broad protection for student speech but also make clear that schools can punish speech if it rises to the level of bullying and harassment

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy argues that an expansion of the Treasury’s payment infrastructure for federal beneficiaries could provide a way to achieve both universal benefit distribution and universal bank access

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky urges Justice Breyer to retire and make way for a successor who would protect his Supreme Court legacy

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky examines a recent Supreme Court ruling that potentially changes the famous Civ Pro “International Shoe” precedent that out-of-state defendants can not be sued without their consent

Ken Alex, director of Project Climate at CLEE, says Berkeley Law’s Grizzly Corps could provide a transformative model, as President Biden’s Infrastructure Plan includes a $10 billion proposal to create a Civilian Climate Corps

Lecturer Shanin Specter weighs the pros and cons of vaccine passes

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why there is clearly a need for additional federal legislation to reform policing

Professor Peter Menell writes innovators, the software industry, and consumers should be grateful that copyright protection for the functional specifications of computer software is finally dead, now that the Supreme Court decision has come down in Google v Oracle

Carolyn Patty Blum, clinical professor emerita and senior research fellow at the Human Rights Center, advises Vice President Harris to look in our own backyard if she wants to address root causes of Central America migration

Professor Jonathan Gould suggests filibuster reformers harness the Senate’s power over its own procedural rules to democratize the institution from within

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky takes a look at Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., the first Supreme Court case to address the ability of schools to impose discipline for speech out of school and over social media

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program, and Ted Lamm, Climate Policy Researcher, at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, lay out a plan for California to develop an equitable, statewide strategy for transitioning to all-electric buildings 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says Vice President Kamala Harris, as presiding officer of the Senate, can — and should — declare the current Senate filibuster rule unconstitutional

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why The American Rescue Plan reflects a dramatic shift in the role of the federal government in combating poverty

Professor Amanda Tyler reflects on the special privilege of working closely with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg one last time

Professor Sonia K. Katyal, with UCLA professor Angela R. Riley and UC-Berkeley doctoral candidate Rachel Lim, writes remedying the harms of the past will require more than simply changing a name or a logo, but it is a first step toward ensuring that racial stereotypes are retired to the annals of history

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes absentee ballots and voting by mail increase participation without any evidence of fraud and laws should facilitate, not limit, these efforts to increase voting

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program, and research fellow Katie Segal, from the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, write California is well positioned to help the United States meet President Biden’s nationwide carbon neutrality goal

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo, with Darien Shanske, predicts the power of local voters to impose taxes on themselves by majority vote using the initiative power might be here to stay

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Stephen M. Duvernay write the US and CA Supreme Courts are moving in opposite directions – but not in the way you might think

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy and Dean Erwin Chemerinsky encourage Congress can keep faith with the First Amendment by preventing social media platforms from discriminating

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why, if former president Trump violated the law, he should be indicted and prosecuted and writes no one, especially not the president, can be above the law

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes, in the case of former president Trump, our courts failed and the message to future presidents, and even other litigants, is just to protract litigation and sometimes it will go away

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky urges Democrats to look at how the Republicans reshaped the federal judiciary under former president Trump and take the opportunity to do the same

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, urges U.S. and state policy makers to seize the opportunity to plan for a more sustainable, domestic electric vehicle supply chain

Professor John Yoo, with Scott Atlas of the Hoover Institute, says lockdowns interfere with the constitutional rights to free speech and religion and the economic liberty of owners and workers

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the Supreme Court’s ruling in Taylor v. Riojas is a rare instance in which the high court rejected a claim of qualified immunity and made clear that no case on point is required in order to hold a government officer liable

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, with Ngozi Nezianya, counsel at Protect Democracy, writes the violence on Jan. 6 should not be used as an excuse to thwart lawful assemblies and protests in Florida, or in any other state

Professor Christopher Kutz reviews Michael Sandel’s The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? and explains why a public, widely accessible merit-based system such as the University of California is our best hope

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, with Miriam Aroni Krinsky, encourages the courts to reject a legal challenge that attempts to derail Los Angeles D.A. George Gascón’s criminal justice reforms

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Burt Neuborne write that, in order for President Biden to get anything done, Democrats must find a way to limit the Republicans’ use of the filibuster 

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg reflects on the passing of her father from COVID-19 and the support she found by joining a virtual grief group

Professor Dan Farber says to succeed, Democrats can’t afford to lose any votes from their side

Professor Jonathan Simon says Californians who witnessed the failures of mass incarceration need to remind the public of the unacceptable human and financial costs of going backward

Lecturer Mallika Kaur writes the rebellion of Dulla Bhatti is a reminder of the region’s long history of agrarian protest – and its fight for justice

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says Twitter and Facebook are within their rights to remove posts by President Trump that rise to the level of incitement, but that outright bans by the communication platforms are a step too far and set a dangerous precedent

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky argues against rushing an impeachment vote

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky urges Gov. Newsom to consider former Berkeley Law professor and California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu for California Attorney General

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says guardrails for our democracy worked, but it could have been different

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Nicholas Cotter ask whether and how cash bail will survive

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says there is no clear answer to the question of whether President Trump can pardon himself, but there is a strong argument that such a pardon would not and should not be constitutional

Lecturer Mallika Kaur explores the farmers’ protests in India and says women’s participation challenges the narrative that the protest is only about angry men, dangerous and entirely unwilling to listen to reason

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the LA Superior Court ruling to enjoin a ban on outdoor dining ignores a fundamental constitutional principle: Government regulation of business is allowed as long as it is reasonable

Professor John Yoo urges progressives to see the value of the Electoral College

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why the SCOTUS decision in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, New York v. Cuomo is hugely important and what it tells us about the new court

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that the Supreme Court’s decision to bar New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo from putting restrictions on religious gatherings is the indicative of the impact Justice Amy Coney Barrett will have on the court

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes we should loudly condemn those who have enabled President Trump’s false claims of election fraud by their words and by their silence

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy writes that President-elect Biden may have the opportunity to solve the nation’s $1.6 trillion student debt problem

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why we are used to hearing agendas from political candidates, but not judges, in reaction to Justice Samuel Alito’s recent Federalist Society speech 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and UC Chancellor Howard Gillman say case-by-case reviews of religious beliefs versus government interests can never work, as the Supreme Court debates Fulton v. Philadelphia

Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, explains why it’s critically important social media companies preserve evidence of abuse

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that the US is not a democracy because the government we live under is profoundly anti-majoritarian

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg writes the Biden/Harris administration’s commitment to veterans gives hope this Veterans Day

Professor Ian Haney Lopez explores the ways President Trump exploited status anxiety within the Latino community and writes that we should think of race not in terms of fixed identities but in terms of complex beliefs about belonging, respect and threat

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky contemplates how the Supreme Court, with three justices appointed by Donald Trump, could anoint him to stay in the White House

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes of his concern for what it will mean to have a Supreme Court majority that embraces the values of the far right of the Republican Party and is far more conservative than the electorate

EBCLC’s Clinical Supervisors Seema Rupani and Hewot Shankute write there is a real appetite for progressive reforms that will increase stable, decent, affordable housing for years to come

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky asks if we really want our rights to be determined by the understandings of centuries ago?

Savala Trepczynski, Executive Director of the Henderson Center for Social Justice, explain how defunding the police protects black women and says we should spend money on helping people, not hurting them

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

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 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

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

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

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

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 reflects on her experiences with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that there’s a way for Democrats to make clear they will not tolerate Republicans trying to fill Justice Ginsburg’s seat in advance of the election

Lecturer Mallika Kaur, as part of her ongoing series exploring managing trauma and the demands of lawyering, speaks to critical race theorist and feminist legal scholar Angela P. Harris about challenging homogeneity of the profession and academy;  the genius and struggle of women scholars; emotional intelligence for strong lawyering; the trap of “diversity” without power-sharing; and the potential of Juneteenth, 2020

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and UC Chancellor Howard Gillman, co-authors of a new book titled The Religion Clauses: The Case for Separating Church and State, argue the Supreme Court’s majority is using the religion clause to strike down hard-fought advances in civil rights

 

Professor Ian Haney Lopez, with Tory Gavito, writes that President Trump’s competitiveness among Latinos is real and suggests Joe Biden’s key to reaching Latino voters is to link racism and class conflict

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that the Trump administration’s attack on critical race theory is profoundly anti-intellectual and wrong 

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy writes that a permanent payroll tax credit is a necessary step toward guaranteeing a living wage for all Americans

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that while it should be the role of the federal courts and the Supreme Court to protect the right to vote, the five conservative Supreme Court justices have strongly indicated that the solutions are not to come from federal courts

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that the RNC events at the White House are blatant violations of The Hatch Act – the most recent of so many instances of Trump flouting federal laws and the norms of the office

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses key lessons the legal profession can learn from attempts to administer the July bar exam and how the pandemic presents a chance to rethink how law school graduates will take the test in the future

Savala Trepczynski, Executive Director of the Henderson Center for Social Justice, writes that people of color have had a golden rule that said be twice as good and calls for white folks to adopt a version of this rule for themselves and their anti-racist work: be twice as kind

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why the coronavirus makes California’s ‘student borrower bill of rights’ essential

Savala Trepczynski, Executive Director of the Henderson Center for Social Justice, writes about the connection between the murders of her great, great grandmother and Breonna Taylor – both black women, both killed in their homes by police, both still waiting for justice

In his latest Deal Professor column in DealBook, Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon considers what TikTok could have done differently to avoid its current trouble with the Trump administration

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Stephen M. Duvernay look at some of the 12 measures in the California November general election

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that President Trump’s latest executive orders are unconstitutional and exceed presidential authority

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman reflect on the 2019-20 Supreme Court term and the decisions concerning the protection for religion, as part of a SCOTUSblog symposium on the Roberts court and the religion clauses

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky looks at recent Supreme Court actions in cases related to the pandemic, and shares what can be learned from them 

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, along with AJ Kutchins and Brendon Woods, writes that the time for waiting is over and the California Legislature must pass AB3070

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that President Trump cannot postpone the election and Republicans, Democrats, conservatives and liberals must all loudly condemn the idea as antithetical to the most basic aspects of a democratic society

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg reflects on her last moments with her father and how COVID-19 restrictions made it difficult to have those last moments

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that President Trump’s use of federal agents in Portland is not only outrageous, it is clearly unconstitutional

Professor Jonathan Gould, with Olatunde C.A Johnson, writes that the Supreme Court’s suspicion of Congress’s competence and motives should be worrying for anyone who cares about the most democratic branch’s ability to serve as a check on presidential power and confront an ever-growing list of policy challenges

Professor Franklin Zimring argues that new incentives and stiff penalties can reduce needless police killings

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program, and Ted Lamm, Climate Policy Researcher at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, write that California’s electrical grid is getting cleaner, but it is still not well positioned to deal with a changing climate with its web of decades-old poles and wires

Lecturer Carrie Rosenbaum, with Ediberto Román, examines the flaws of the Trump administration’s immigration policy that would have forced international college students to leave the U.S, and explain and why it would have failed court scrutiny under the Administrative Procedure Act

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Stephen M. Duvernay ask why, if everything happening remotely is our new long-term reality, is the California legislative process on hold?

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg explains why the Senate should pass the PAWS for Veterans Therapy Act, which would create a five-year pilot program requiring the VA to fund service dogs for veterans with PTSD and other mental health conditions

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy writes that California should enact an “Automatic Application and Admission” plan for the UC system, to increase diversity across race and class lines at all UC campuses

Professor Amanda Tyler explores the potential ramifications of the Supreme Court decision in Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky looks at today’s Supreme Court decision and what Chief Justice Roberts may have signaled about his a willingness of to follow precedent in the area of abortion rights

Stephen M. Duvernay and Brandon V. Stracener, senior research fellows at the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law, write that while the governor legally has the power to force people to wear masks, people should wear them because it’s the right thing to do to save themselves, their families and fellow Californians

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, writes that AB 3070 is about addressing enduring, pervasive racial and ethnic inequities 

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy writes that India’s solution to the problem of the unbanked — requiring existing banks to offer free, quality accounts in underserved areas — can be replicated here at home

Professor Catherine Crump, Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, along with Ken White, writes that the Federal Bureau of Prisons should end its unjust policy of requiring inmates to “voluntarily” waive privilege in emails they send to their attorneys through the bureau-provided email system

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg writes about her father’s COVID-19 diagnosis

Lecturer Carrie Rosenbaum, with Ediberto Roman and Geoffrey Hoffman, explains why the Supreme Court DACA decision is far from a permanent victory for Dreamers

Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, writes that judges have an express mandate to act in ways “that promote public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary”

Professor Sonia Katyal, co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. with UCLA Professor Angela R. Riley, writes brands can no longer stand apart from social movements and activism and must stop using racial stereotypes to sell products

Shanin Specter says the best advice for business owners who want to protect employees and themselves during the pandemic is simple: follow the rules 

Mario Alvarado Cifuentes, Pro Bono Administrator, says DACA helped him, but it was never meant to be a full solution

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the Supreme Court’s DACA decision shows we still have an independent judiciary

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the Supreme Court decision on LGBTQ rights is a huge advance, both for civil rights and for the triumph for the rule of law

Professor Khiara Bridges explains how COVID-19 and George Floyd’s murder reveal black people’s vulnerability and marginalization

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that major reforms in our criminal justice system are needed and hopes the national protests about police racism and police violence will lead to reforms that really will make a difference

Amelia Miazad, founding Director and Senior Research Fellow of the Business in Society Institute, and Professor Stavros Gadinis suggest corporate leaders welcome input from employees and consumers, but also local communities, NGOs, academic experts, government authorities and regulators, as they navigate their business thru the pandemic

Professor Ian Haney Lopez asks if President Trump can replicate President Nixon’s success in posturing against protesters

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that the President and the Supreme Court have gutted the legal tools for fighting police abuse, but it does not have to be this way

John A. Powell, Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute, looks at the murder or George Floyd and calls on us to keep the struggle for love and humanity alive 

Savala Trepczynski, Executive Director of the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, writes that “black and brown people have been protesting for centuries. It’s white people who are responsible for what happens next.”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that President Trump’s effort to open religious institutions for worship services has no basis in law 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky suggests the Supreme Court should continue to utilize technology after the pandemic 

Visiting professor Peter H. Schuck explains why the President’s comments about the death of a congressional staffer in 2001 may constitute intentional torts for which a civil jury could award punitive damages against him

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy calls for debt-relief legislation that would allow consumers to defer payment and an opportunity to refinance missed payments

Jim Dempsey, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, explores whether the China-U.S. supply chains, previously driven by trade war-induced uncertainties, increasingly may be cast in terms of cybersecurity and national security imperatives

Ethan Elkind, Director, Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, explains why regulatory retreat over automobile fuel efficiency undermines both climate progress and U.S. competitiveness

Professor Catherine Crump, Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, along with Ken White, calls for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to stop forcing inmates to “voluntarily” waive all claims to confidentiality in emails they send their lawyers through the BOP-provided email system

Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon, in his recurring Deal Professor column in DealBook, considers what went wrong in one of the highest-profile lawsuits over a busted deal — so far — during the pandemic

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky asks whether the Supreme Court will uphold the rule of law when it comes to the Trump presidency

Professor Jeffrey Selbin, Director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic, with Jessica Feierman, explains why now is the time to impose an immediate moratorium on all juvenile fees and fines

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg, with Dwight Stirling, calls for California to pass Senate Bill 1274 to empower service members to sue their assailants in civilian court

Professor Paul Schwartz examines the role for COVID-19 cellphone surveillance apps in contact tracing and the impact they might have on privacy and civil liberties.

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy and EBCLC’s Miguel Soto explain how consumer debt can result in a court order to sell your home, even if you pay your mortgage.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky previews the upcoming month at SCOTUS 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why the law is not on the side of small business owners suing the government, arguing that closure orders for nonessential businesses are unconstitutional.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says House Republicans who blocked a rule change to allow proxy voting are needlessly putting their colleagues and their staffs in danger

Professor Emeritus Daniel Rubinfeld, with UPenn Professor Robert Inman, suggest using the 3 principles of federal policymaking, laid out by the Founding Fathers, to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic.

Professor Pamela Samuelson considers the implications of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Romag Fasteners, Inc. v. Fossil, Inc. and whether juries or only judges can decide about disgorgement of a trademark infringer’s profits in trademark cases.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, with UCLA Law Professor Jennifer M. Chacón, write that the President’s attempts to ban immigration during the Covid-19 crisis are unlawful.

Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, explores how the courts have a chance to learn from the virtual ways they are doing their work during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Professor Catherine Albiston examines inequality, paid family leave, and the new legislation during the Covid-19 crisis.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky examines whether the government can restrict individual liberties to stop the spread of COVID-19.

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and fellow alum Matthew Stanford argue that Federalism is both the problem and the solution to the Covid-19 crisis.

Professor Aaron Edlin, with Dana Goldman, explains how California could use a system of virus alerts to help people get back to work

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why President Trump is wrong to claim he has “absolute power” during the pandemic.

The deans of UC Berkeley and UCLA law schools write that it is exceedingly hard to imagine that by July it will be safe for students to sit closely together in gigantic test halls, nor is it likely to be feasible to implement appropriate physical distancing measures.

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy writes about the steps Gov. Newsom can take to help ease the financial burden of Californians.

Adam Sterling and Robert Bartlett explain the flaws in the CARES Act’s PPP that could leave small businesses that need the funds the most at the back of the line.

Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon returns to the DealBook column as the “Deal Professor” to talk deal making during the pandemic.

Adam Sterling and Robert Bartlett explain the flaws in the CARES Act’s PPP that could leave small businesses that need the funds the most at the back of the line.

Professor Aaron Edlin, with Bryce Nesbitt, suggest a path to normalcy lies in credible, verifiable, and voluntary programs to identify individuals as “certified recovered” from Covid-19

Professor Jonathan Gould, along with David Pozen, writes about how Congress can force the White House to more aggressively respond to the pandemic.

Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon expresses his frustrations with the inequities he’s seen in public/private school virtual classrooms.

Professor Kenneth Ayotte, with David Skeel from Penn Law, looks at bankruptcy law and its readiness for the coming wave of corporate failures.

Professor Amanda Tyler looks at the lessons we can learn from President Lincoln as we navigate the Covid-19 pandemic.

Claudia Polsky, founding Director of the Environmental Law Clinic, with Tim Whitehouse and Tom Bruton, writes that the EPA must designate PFAS wastes as “hazardous” immediately and set strict standards for their management to keep hazardous chemicals out of drinking water.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why the President does not have the authority to reopen business by April.

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg discusses the necessary reform the VA needs to make to help service members with PTSD who desperately need proper care

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg discusses how the new $738 billion bill under the National Defense Authorization Act leaves victims of military medical malpractice, sexual assault and other grievous harms with little recourse

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg expresses concern that Congress’s proposed administrative process for medical malpractice claims will be used by the Defense Department as a remedy to protect Feres

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg discusses the lack of legislation fighting military sexual assault and the need for more legislation in order to help sexual assault victims

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg comments on Alejandro Garcia’s experience as a veteran who was denied benefits for almost nine years