From: Dean Erwin Chemerinsky
Date: Thursday, January 7, 2021
Dear Berkeley Law community,
As a law school – and as lawyers and future lawyers – we have a special obligation to uphold the rule of law. Yesterday, we saw an unprecedented challenge to the rule of law, but we also witnessed its triumph.
I, like all of you, watched with shock and horror as the United States Capitol was attacked by a violent mob apparently intent on intimidating members of Congress. I was deeply disturbed that this was incited by the President of the United States and at no point did he condemn the violence. It is the sad culmination of two months of an assault on the democratic process unlike any in American history.
But ultimately the rule of law triumphed. A presidential election was held in the midst of a pandemic, with record voter turnout and no identifiable fraud or foreign interference. Election officials, both Republican and Democrat, impartially and accurately counted the votes, even in the face of enormous political pressure to alter the results. Judges – state and federal, Republican and Democrat – rejected spurious challenges based on the lack of evidence of fraud and the absence of any viable legal claim. Senators and Representatives in Congress – Republican and Democrat – accepted the results of the Electoral College, following the process prescribed by the Constitution and federal law.
The guardrails of democracy worked. It happened because courageous men and women – including especially lawyers and judges – stood up to efforts at intimidation and followed the law.
Many flaws in our electoral system were exposed and need to be addressed. We all saw that democracy is fragile and cannot be taken for granted. But to me, above all, these events demonstrate why the law and what we do as lawyers and as a law school matter so much.
I certainly did not expect to write a message before the semester began, but I felt it important to speak out as a dean in light of the unprecedented assault on our democracy and the rule of law.
Warmly,
Erwin
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law
University of California, Berkeley School of Law