Constitutional Law

  • LA TImes icon

    L.A. sues journalist, activist group to claw back photos of undercover officers (04/06/2023)

    Dean Chemerinsky said the law “is clearly established that when the press lawfully obtains something, they’re allowed to truthfully report it,” and Camacho obviously obtained the images lawfully here.

  • aba journal logo

    Column: Oral arguments conclude with important free speech, civil rights cases (04/04/2023)

    Dean Erwin Chemerinksy writes about two cases to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the First Amendment and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 

  • Boston Globe logo

    Opinion: No one, including a former president, is above the law (03/30/2023)

    “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.”

  • Sacramento Bee icon

    Opinion: Stanford students violated free speech by shouting down a conservative speaker (03/28/2023)

    “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.”

  • MSNBC logo

    Free speech faces a reckoning on college campuses (03/27/2023)

    UC Berkley School of Law’s Dean Erwin Chemerinsky joins Morning Joe to discuss a recent protest at Stanford University when Trump-appointed judge Kyle Duncan spoke at the school.

  • Washington Post logo

    Oklahoma must allow abortion if mother’s life is threatened, court rules (03/22/2023)

    “The ruling means pregnant people no longer have to wait until “their life is literally on the line” to legally qualify for an abortion,” said Khiara M. Bridges, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley. “But it’s a narrow win because people trying to avoid a potentially life-threatening pregnancy make up a small proportion of those seeking abortions.”

  • LA TImes icon

    Opinion: Reopening Uber’s challenge to California labor law is just the beginning (03/20/2023)

    “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.”

  • Sacramento Bee icon

    Opinion: Conservative attacks on abortion rights have continued – even here in California (03/16/2023)

    Dean Chemerinsky discusses the continued conservative attacks on abortion rights.

  • law.com

    Commentary: A New Constitutional Right to Housing Is a House of Straw (03/16/2023)

    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.” 

  • SF Chronicle

    Antiabortion activists are coming to California (03/08/2023)

    “One-ninth of the country’s population is in California, so I understand why (antiabortion activists) would want to bring the fight here,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. “But given the law in this state, and given the politics of the state, it’s hard to imagine them making much inroads here. I don’t think anyone really regards California as a battleground state with regards to abortion rights.”