“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.
“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 strongly support 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices, but I believe that this would require a constitutional amendment, especially if applied to current justices,” said UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
“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.”
Leading constitutional scholar and UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky joins SpeechMatters to share both his insights on this Supreme Court term and his reflections on the tumultuous past year on campus.
“The long-settled legal doctrine here depends on constitutional permission for forced labor as punishment for crime,” said David Carrillo, executive director of Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center. “Removing that support raises difficult questions that courts will need to rethink — without an established foundation to build on.”
“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.