Constitutional Law

“When the Supreme Court removed the last federal guardrail on gerrymandering in Louisiana v. Callais, it set up a dangerous experiment for the 2026 midterms: What happens to American democracy when political mapmakers face no federal constraints?,” writes Professor Bertrall Ross. 

“One of the most dramatic changes in constitutional law in recent years has concerned the religion clauses of the First Amendment,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “For decades, the Supreme Court took a robust approach to the establishment clause, seeing it as best described by Thomas Jefferson’s metaphor of a wall separating church and state.” 

“Diversity is at the heart of educational reforms that broadened free-speech protections and recognized academic freedom as within the scope of the First Amendment,” writes Professor David Oppenheimer. “Diversity, free speech, and academic freedom are linked as an approach to knowledge based on the freedom to inquire.”

“Although considerable attention has understandably been paid to President Donald Trump’s efforts to suppress the vote, there has been too little focus on the possibility that congressional Republicans might try to overturn Democratic victories after the election and thereby retain control of the House or the Senate, “write Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Miles Mogulescu.

Ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2026-27 term, Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law Erwin Chemerinsky and Berkeley Law professor John Yoo came together for an annual debate about the court’s judicial and political climate at the Supreme Court Roundup.

“To me, the balance of equities seems clear that it makes sense to pause these deportations to third counties until the courts can decide whether it is lawful: Deportations can lead to irreversible harm, while delaying the deportations to these countries just means that they will remain in detention in the United States or sent to places where their deportation is legally permissible,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses some of the most important potential cases of the Supreme Court’s new term.

“I just think, given the Trump administration and the times we live in,” Chemerinsky said, “every term is going to have blockbuster cases.”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky previews what are likely to be the most important cases of the Supreme Court’s new term.

Jeremy Fogel, a retired federal judge and ethics expert who leads the Berkeley Judicial Institute, said that he agreed with Justice Alito’s decision to recuse because, while Justice Alito doesn’t own stock in the companies directly involved, the court’s code of ethics applies to situations where a justice’s financial interests were likely to be affected by the outcome of a case.