Articles

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the Biden administration’s vaccination mandates are clearly legal, but the politicization of the pandemic and vaccines makes it doubtful whether the Supreme Court will uphold them

Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon, with Berkeley Professor Mark Brilliant, writes there’s a forgotten liberal solution to the school system issues highlighted by the pandemic: vouchers 

Mark Cohen, senior fellow and director of the Asia IP Project at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, says political inertia and questions over how to better address US tech security and Chinese intellectual property theft are hurdles to fixing or shutting down the China Initiative

The Samuelson Clinic’s Megan Graham has trained more than 1,000 public defenders in three years on how to litigate cutting-edge technology issues.

Four Berkeley Law students detail their memorable experience and how it shaped their career  trajectory. 

Lecturer Shanin Specter secured a big-ticket verdict in 2021 – a $9.7 million for a man who sustained neurological damage from a mistake during brain surgery

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Stephen M. Duvernay explain that California cities have no power to become breakaway republics, and Oroville’s stunt to become a “constitutional republic city” because of unhappiness with the ongoing state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic is not a thing

Ken Alex, director of Project Climate at the Center for Law, Energy and Environment, explains the hurdles to building food waste recycling plants, a key part of a law taking effect in January that will require municipalities across the state to collect food waste for its potential use in making renewable natural gas for electricity

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes meaningful police oversight will need to come from the political process, from Congress and from state and local governments, rather than from the Supreme Court

“Eleanor is precisely the type of life-long evidence scholar, teacher, mentor, and role model who is deserving of the Wigmore Award,” one nomination reads. 

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, explains that racial discrimination in jury selection is a nationwide issue and says reforming peremptory strikes is only part of the fight 

Professor Khiara M. Bridges shoots down the right’s attempts to portray abortion as a “career choice” explains what is really at stake for women

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why he thinks the Supreme Court should be expanded and says while it’s true increasing the size of the court might affect its legitimacy, we’re already there

Lecturer Mallika Kaur writes, after a year of unprecedented protests, farmers and agrarian laborers in India have won an unprecedented victory and are now poised to change the whole game

Professor Khiara M. Bridges appears on the BBC’s Americast podcast to discuss Governor Newsom’s plan to use Texas SB8’s framework for gun control and why she believes it is more than just a PR stunt

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Professor Khiara M. Bridges discuss Texas’ SB8 and Governor Newsom’s plan to use it as a framework to address gun violence 

Professor Catherine Fisk comments on the liability of Uber in the shooting death of a driver in San Francisco under Prop 22, which has been deemed unconstitutional, but remains in effect

The school’s 95.4% pass rate among first-time takers is the highest mark of any law school in California. 

Mark Cohen, senior fellow and director of the Asia IP Project at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, says, in the federal ‘China Initiative’ case of Harvard nanotechnologist Charles Lieber, the government is settling for charges that have little to do with technology

Professor Khiara M. Bridges appears on KQED’s Forum to discuss whether Governor Newsom’s plan to use Texas’ SB8 as a framework to address gun violence is legally viable and politically astute

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Professor Khiara M. Bridges explain the differences between Texas’ SB8 and Governor Newsom’s plan to use it as a framework to address gun violence 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains the impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Texas abortion case and Governor Newsom’s announcement of a bill that would allow people to sue the makers and sellers of assault weapons

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Professor Khiara M. Bridges discuss the Supreme Court’s decision on Texas’ abortion law and say it subverts the constitutional guarantee that all citizens have the same rights, no matter where they live 

Professor Khiara M. Bridges says Governor Newsom’s pledge to pass a law restricting assault weapons through private litigation is exactly the kind of legal gambit that constitutional scholars have predicted since the Supreme Court majority declined to block the Texas abortion law

Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, says the United States’ failure to respond to evidence presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights regarding the 2010 killing of Anastasio Hernández Rojas at the hands of U.S. border agents, goes against the president’s campaign commitment that immigration agents “abide by professional standards and are held accountable for inhumane treatment”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses the Supreme Court’s decision to not block Texas law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy which goes against Roe v Wade

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the Supreme Court ruling in the Texas abortion case has given Texas a roadmap for blocking lawsuits

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky appears on the National Constitution Center’s podcast We the People to discuss the history of religious schooling and public funding in America under the Constitution, including from the founding onward; what historical precedent means for how to understand and interpret the religious freedom clauses of the First Amendment; and how the Court might rule in the case

Matthew Stanford and Brandon V. Stracener, California Constitution Center Senior Research Fellows, explain why it’s time to abandon monitoring software and the traditional closed-book bar examination model itself 

The 90-second episodes of the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment’s show aim to break people out of the doom-and-gloom loop on climate change.

Lecturer Jim Dempsey joined the Bar Association of San Francisco virtual panel discussing the California Privacy Rights Act

The Berkeley Law Opportunity Scholarship program is highlighted as a resource for first-generation students

Professor Jonathan Simon says that crime concerns in L.A. can slow progressive criminal justice reforms, but it won’t derail the reform movement

Professor Jonathan Simon says that due to businesses trying to maximize profits by reducing the number of people working there, the automated self check-outs enable theft

Professor Catherine Fisk, in light of the recent hacking of Planned Parenthood, inputs that although some women might be worried about their jobs, there are laws that protect employees from retaliation for engaging in lawful off-duty behavior

Professor Orin Kerr appears in The Lawfare Podcast to discuss about the merits of Apple’s lawsuit and its implications for the spyware industry and cybersecurity norms 

Professor Khiara M. Bridges says that critical race theory conflated ideas like diversity, equity and inclusion efforts or teacher training meant to raise awareness of why students might face different circumstances

Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, says that by the United States not responding by the set deadline in the international human rights case involving the killing of Anastasio Hernández Rojas, it gives authoritarian regimes in the Americas permission to do the same

Professor Frank Zimring says that legally limiting the capacity of a magazine is marching pretty far from the core meaning of individual self-defense

Professor David Oppenheimer, Director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law,  comments on the Activision Blizzard Inc. and Monster Beverage Corp. case and says California courts will likely uphold the gender mandate since these laws have become commonplace in much of the world

A Berkeley Law graduate, professor, and two students team up to help a domestic violence victim and improve California law. 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is the most important abortion case to come before the Supreme Court in almost three decades

Remelisa Moraleda, president of the University of Northeastern Philippines and its law school dean, calls Berkeley “the best place to be.” 

Judge Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, discusses the future of virtual courtrooms and how law schools need to be preparing graduates for this “new normal” of courtroom proceedings.

Judge Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, talks about the future of virtual courtrooms and how law schools need to be preparing graduates for this “new normal” of courtroom proceedings

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, explains why U.S. construction projects are harder to get done and says the costs are higher than those in Western Europe and democratic nations in Asia

Professor Jonathan Gould argues the standard case against filibuster reform misses an important asymmetry between the two major political parties

Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, discusses the landmark ruling against paramilitary violence in Columbia and her years long effort to to have the testimonies of the families of victims included in U.S. criminal proceedings against the Colombian paramilitary leaders