Constitutional Law

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

Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses the Supreme Court’s 6 to 3 decision in the landmark case, Louisiana v. Callais.

“Justice Thomas is the most radically conservative justice to serve on the Supreme Court in modern times,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. “I say this because ​in addition to being conservative he has taken positions that would dramatically change the law that the court never has accepted.”

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

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

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

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

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

“If there’s a conflict between federal law on the one hand, and state or local (law) on the other, federal law wins out,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of UC Berkeley School of Law.

“Most of all, I want to use this additional time as dean to encourage us all to think big about what we can do to position Berkeley Law to truly make a difference in legal education, the legal system and society,” Chemerinsky wrote in a message to the school community.