Media Highlights

A working paper by the International Human Rights Law Clinic synthesizes 40 years of research and public information and finds a San Francisco police department historically mired in deep racism and violence

Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute, says corporate commitments to being water positive “are good and important on paper”, but there’s much more companies can be doing

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, says from its inception, in this country, the death penalty and racism were inseparable

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky appears on the ABA Journal’s Modern Law Library podcast to discuss why the Supreme Court did not address police powers during the first century of its existence; why the Warren Court was an aberration when it came to curtailing police powers; and what his experience was like when he investigated the Los Angeles Police Department’s notorious Rampart Division in 2000

Professor Amanda Tyler talks to Law and History Review about her book, Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union which she coauthored with the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, discusses the how the challenges experienced by the California high speed rail project could impact other projects nationwide

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says although the federal government regulates offshore operations, the state can take action onshore to protect human health and wildlife

Professor Jonathan Simon says that we shouldn’t trust the conviction rate too much, highlighting that the conviction rate fails to capture how well the district attorney is protecting justice as a whole in the community

Professor Khiara M. Bridges says TX SB8 was designed to cause chaos, and the plaintiffs are just participating in the chaos

Amelia Miazad, founding Director and Senior Research Fellow of the Business in Society Institute, discusses the Institute’s new partnership with Paul, Weiss and says it will help share our research with the practitioner community

Amelia Miazad, founding Director and Senior Research Fellow of the Business in Society Institute, says she envisions the Institute’s new partnership with Paul, Weiss bridging the gap between theoretical discussions about ESG and what’s actually happening within companies

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the Supreme Court’s conservative majority is poised to reshape constitutional rights and protections in ways this nation has not seen in generation

Professor David Oppenheimer, Director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law,  says he believes the decision in Diaz v. Tesla case is the largest verdict in an individual race discrimination in employment case

Professor Sarah Song appears on NPR’s Philosophy Talk podcast to discuss immigration and multiculturalism 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes it’s not a coincidence that so many justices are speaking publicly about the court, its reputation, and its processes

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky said colleagues should boycott panels where John Eastman is speaking

Professor Amelia Miazad and Dave Curran, executive director of Paul, Weiss’ new ESG and Law Institute (with which the Business in Society Institute is the inaugural academic partner), write legal teams can’t wait for legal education to catch up – they need to hire people now who have ESG knowledge and skills

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky appears on ABC7’s Facebook live “Getting Answers” to discuss what can be done about disinformation (begins at 13:20)

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy explains what economists call the “Great Gatsby curve” and offers ways to avoid a dystopian future with wide and permanent economic inequality

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Fazaga: the pending Supreme Court case dealing with the use of law enforcement surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and the state secrets privilege defense

Professor David Oppenheimer, Director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law, explains why racial-discrimination suits like the one Owen Diaz is bringing to trial against Tesla, usually don’t make it to trial

Professor Eric Stover, Faculty Director of the Human Rights Center, discusses his mission to shed light on acts of barbarity—and bringing the perpetrators to justice— in relation to massacres such as the Tulsa and Rwandan tragedies

A white paper written by Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic students Tyler Takemoto and Ari Chivukula says most cities give police broad latitude to use surveillance tech during “exigent circumstances”, creating loopholes in citizen oversight

Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, discusses a United States Magistrate judge’s decision ordering Facebook to disclose content in order to assess “responsibility for genocide” against the Rohingya before the International Court of Justice

Professor Orin Kerr says the judge’s opinion in Republic of the Gambia v. Facebook highlights the need for higher courts and Congress to update the 35-year-old Stored Communications Act

Stephanie Campos-Bui, Clinical Supervising Attorney in the Policy Advocacy Clinic, explains why juvenile court fines and fees are bad practice, as PAC and a coalition of prominent youth advocacy groups launch Debt Free Justice, a national campaign to abolish court-imposed fines and fees

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Professor Burt Neuborne suggest abortion providers call Texas’ bluff and say it’s time for every Texas abortion provider to demand antiabortionists show their cards

Professor Robert Bartlett discusses the SEC’s investigation of Activision Blizzard Inc. and says the agency was targeting the executives to get to the bottom of what Activision Blizzard’s leadership knew internally about allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination

A discussion of debate amongst judges concerning multidistrict litigation – and who gets leadership appointments in them – was a highlight in a webinar hosted by the Civil Justice Research Initiative

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses Laporta v. the City of Chicago – the case before the Supreme Court that could lead to police reform by showing cities that it is in their own financial interest to crack down on problem officers, before those officers act off duty in ways that could cost taxpayers millions

Lecturer Shanin Specter discusses his clients’ case against B. Braun which alleges toxic emissions from a company plant caused neighbors to develop sometimes fatal cancer cases

Louise Bedsworth, Director of the Land Use Program at the Center for Law Energy & the Environment and senior advisor to the California China Climate Institute, explores three important facts about our changing climate this summer of cascading climate disasters has put in stark relief 

Mark Cohen, senior fellow and director of the Asia IP Project at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, explains why President Biden’s proposal to waive all IP rights related to COVID-19 is “toothless virtue-signaling at best — and dangerous economic capitulation at worst”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky suggests the Supreme Court justices stop acting like “partisan hacks” if they don’t want to be perceived that way

Professor Robert Bartlett discusses ways to push companies to change in accordance with shareholder goals of socially responsible investing

Professor Frank Zimring looks back at the age of Attica and says incarceration is a larger part of American life in 2021 than it was in 1970

Mark Cohen, senior fellow and director of the Asia IP Project at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, discusses the failure of Trump’s so-called China Initiative

Lecturer Mallika Kaur explores how might managers in the legal profession can redefine their leadership styles to listen and plan for primary and secondary trauma responses—in themselves and others – during an interview with Monika Kalra Varma

Professor Christopher Kutz reviews Hélène Landemore’s new book, Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century, and its exploration of representative democracy

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky urges Californians to recognize the need to reform the recall process

Professor Khiara M. Bridges says the Texas abortion law was only successful because it had a receptive audience in the Supreme Court and Fifth Circuit and was designed to evade judicial review

Mark Cohen, senior fellow and director of the Asia IP Project at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, says President Xi Jinping is in effect “weaponising the judiciary” to defend China’s interests abroad

Professor Orin Kerr discusses a pair of federal lawsuits claiming chalking tires is a violation of drivers’ Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures

Professor Chris Hoofnagle, Faculty Director at the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, views the Apple/Epic decision as a major victory for app developers, but is worried that the greater freedom to post in-app links will weaken privacy and security, as Apple has warned

Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses the new Texas abortion law and says it makes it ill-advised for physicians to counsel their patients about their constitutional rights

David Carrillo, Executive Director of the California Constitution Center, appears on NPR’s A1 to discuss the California recall election

Lecturer Shanin Specter discusses whether liability waivers mean giving up the right to sue even if operators are at fault

Professor Jonathan Glater weighs in the pause in student loans and how it showed us a world without student loan debt

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the Supreme Court’s refusal to block the Texas abortion law opens the door to insidious copycat laws that could be used to attack other constitutional rights

Professor Khiara M. Bridges dispels the myth is that critical race theory is being taught in K-12 classrooms across the country

Professor Catherine Crump, Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, discusses a lawsuit filed by a member of the city’s privacy advisory commission accusing police of violating multiple city and state laws

Professor Khiara M. Bridges appears on the SF Chronicle’s Fifth & Mission podcast to discuss the new law in Texas that outlaws abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and the impact it will have on California

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the Texas abortion law bans effectively abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy and cannot be reconciled with Roe

Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses the landmark decision by the Supreme Court NOT to put the Texas abortion restriction law on hold

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky appears on KFI’s Bill Handel show to discuss the new abortion law in Texas, what it means for women in Texas, and how it  impact rulings like Roe v. Wade

Lecturer Jim Dempsey discusses the Juniper breach and says big lesson from the whole ordeal is that the government cannot control its vulnerabilities

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky warns that if the Texas abortion law is upheld, other states could authorize private lawsuits to undermine any right they opposed

Professor Khiara M. Bridges appears on NPR’s Code Switch podcast to explain what moral panics reveal about the ongoing freakout over critical race theory in schools

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy explains the costs of an individual’s decision to remain unvaccinated on children, disadvantaged communities, people in poorer countries, vaccinated individuals and funders and patients of the health care system

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why matter what happens in the recall election on Sept. 14, the recall system prescribed by the California Constitution makes no sense and needs to be fixed

Professor Catherine Fisk discusses a California bill that would give farmworkers more ways to vote in union elections

Dr. Rohini Haar, Human Rights Center Research Fellow, with Nick Robinson, senior legal adviser at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, writes it’s up to California to lead the way in support of a coherent national policy on less lethal weapons — their manufacture, procurement and use — that better protects protesters and the public

David Carrillo, Executive Director of the California Constitution Center, discusses the issues related to the Emergency Services Act, potentially created by Gov. Newsom failing to win the recall election

Zulaikha Aziz, co-director of the Afghanistan Project, says the wealth of skills and expertise that has already fled Afghanistan is staggering

Professor Orin Kerr says police ordinarily need a warrant to enter a home without consent, but there is Supreme Court precedent that holds that officers can also enter a home if they have an “objectively reasonable basis for believing an occupant is seriously injured or imminently threatened with such injury”

Savala Nolan appears on KQED’d Forum to discuss new book, Don’t Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender and the Body

Professor Daniel Farber says the physical and legal infrastructure of the West is geared toward a certain climate regime and, at great expense and effort, dams, canals, and irrigation systems have been carefully engineered for a climate that no longer exists

Professor Jennifer Chacon appears on the Immigration Nerds podcast to discuss the history of policing immigrants through the CJS and exploring better alternatives to managing migration

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky comments on the lawsuit filed by capitol police officers against former President Trump and members of far-right groups alleging they conspired to use violence on January 6th to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the presidential election

Professor Catherine Crump, Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, discusses the clinic’s work and the beneficial experience of clinic work for students, whether their goals are to work in public interest or the private sector

Professor Pamela Samuelson appears on the Techdirt podcast to discuss the Oracle/Google case and what impact the landmark case has on copyright and interoperability

The New York Times reviews dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s new book, Presumed Guilty

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy, with Emma Elizabeth Gonzalez, directing attorney at the Public Law Center in Orange County, explains why justice in debt-collection cases is one-sided and says the state should guarantee the right to a lawyer

Professor Catherine Fisk says the fight over Prop 22 isn’t over – after consideration by the state court of appeals, it will eventually be decided by the California Supreme Court

Professor Catherine Fisk says the next fight over Prop 22 will be about whether it will remain in place or if companies’ exemption will be rescinded while the appeal process plays out

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky appears on KQED’S Forum to discuss his new book Presumed Guilty, the judicial doctrines that enable illegal police behavior and how to reform them

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky suggests voters bring a lawsuit, ideally directly in the California Supreme Court, where justices could declare unconstitutional the method of choosing a successor if the governor is recalled

David Carrillo, Executive Director of the California Constitution Center, explains the history of recall elections in California and the Legislature can take steps to pare down the replacement ballot

Lecturer Shanin Specter discusses his firm’s decision to require Covid booster shots and their continuing efforts to lead in terms of vaccination in the workplace

Mark Cohen, senior fellow and director of the Asia IP Project at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, says he expects more lawmakers to take a tougher line on Chinese tech firms operating in America as Beijing’s crackdown continues

Dave Jones, Director, Climate Risk Initiative at the Center for Law Energy & the Environment, says the insurance industry , on the hook for more claim payouts, should be doing more to prepare for climate-related risk

Lecturer Mallika Kaur interviews Blaine Bookey, whose successful case against the DOJ on behalf of a Salvadoran woman who fled domestic violence and was seeking asylum, has brought some hope to survivors of gender-based violence

A blog post by Professor Jonah Gelbach, which expressed reservations about the methodology used in a study that accused some federal judges of extreme racial and ethnic bias in sentencing, led to the authors withdrawing their conclusions 

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Brandon V. Stracener examine a number of concerns, for both Democrats and Republicans, related to the California recall election

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why he believes the California recall election violates the U.S. Constitution

Professor Frank Partnoy discusses Nate Anderson and his upstart firm, Hindenburg Research, and says Anderson “seems fearless, even when going after some of the biggest corporate targets”

Professor Aaron S. Edlin explains why the California recall is unconstitutional and should be challenged in court

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, discusses the clinic’s recent report, “Whitewashing the Jury Box”, and the long history of stereotypes, often correlated with race, have been consistently used to justify striking jurors 

Professor Jonathan Simon discusses the case of a Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputy being tried for the death of an unarmed motorist now facing a less serious charge after prosecutors failed to demonstrate that he used a semiautomatic pistol in the 2018 shooting — even though there is no dispute that he did

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Professor Aaron S. Edlin explain why the California recall election violates basic election principles and should be declared unconstitutional

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, appears on KQED’s Forum to discuss President Biden’s executive order that aims to make half of all new vehicles sold electric by 2030 and what impact California’s own policies and growing electric vehicle industry will have on the national plan

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says the California high speed rail project would be eligible for funding under President Biden’s infrastructure plan, but those funds will take years to translate into tangible improvements

Professor Jonathan Gould, with Harvard Law Professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos, explores democracy reforms Congress could pass right now—even with the filibuster still in place

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says the California “hydrogen highway” started as kind of a bad bet by the state that has now become a “legacy zombie technology”

Professor Claudia Polsky, director of the Environmental Law Clinic, discusses her clients’ successful federal suit to compel the EPA to update an oil spill contingency plan they said was woefully out of date

Lecturer Shanin Specter explains that his firm decided to require vaccinations for all employees because they found it wasn’t practical to prep for trials remotely and mentorship suffered in a remote environment

Professor Sonia Katyal explores why, when it comes to LGBTQ equality, the International Olympic Committee and its American counterpart, the US Olympic Committee, still have amends to make

Lecturer Hon. Elaine Rushing’s arbitration decision finds Tesla liable for harassment because it was perpetrated by an employee’s supervisors

Research and data from the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment was used in a Washington Post analysis of the Biden administration’s efforts to transform the nation’s energy and environmental landscape

Professor Rebecca Goldstein discusses President Biden’s action on policing reform thus far and says it’s a tightrope that even the most skilled politician might not be able to walk

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg discusses the crisis of sexual assault in the military

Lecturer Shanin Specter says we would be farther along in the pandemic if all businesses required their employees to be vaccinated

Professor Robert Bartlett discusses a new study he co-authored, “Consumer-lending discrimination in the FinTech Era,” which found rate disparities in the mortgage market that appeared unrelated to creditworthiness

Professor David Oppenheimer discusses affirmative action and his work on the origins of the diversity justification for it

Lecturer Shanin Specter’s recent essay on the Delta variant was quoted in commentary by Michael Smerconish on CNN

Ken Alex, director of Project Climate at the Center for Law, Energy and Environment, discusses carbon-capture technology and says we have to sequester carbon at a high rate

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes policies requiring vaccination against COVID-19 need not include, and should not include, exceptions for those who have religious objections to vaccinations

Brandon V. Stracener, California Constitution Center Senior Research Fellow, debunks misinformation surrounding personal belief exemptions for vaccinations of children

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says the execution of California’s high speed rail project was done backwards and now we’re seeing the political price of that decision

Amelia Miazad, founding Director and Senior Research Fellow of the Business in Society Institute, says the idea of corporate purpose has been very ambiguous, but tying executives’ incentives to purpose-led goals is an obvious way to signal that companies are taking it seriously

An essay from Savala Nolan’s new book, Don’t Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender and the Body, about the role racism played in her father’s life and death, is excerpted

Professor Khiara M. Bridges says Texas Senate Bill 8, which prohibits abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, is bigger than abortion – it is a terrifying precedent to set for any person who cares about constitutional rights

Professor Frank Partnoy discovers just how easy it is to buy cryptocurrencies and crypto assets — and just how hard it is to get out

Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute, writes modernizing water rights information is a critical step toward enabling California to manage resources and plan for a drought-ridden future.

The San Francisco Chronicle reviews Savala Nolan’s new book, Don’t Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender and the Body

Professor Jim Dempsey discusses the lawsuit former President Trump filed against Facebook, Twitter, and Google over their decisions to suspend or ban him from using their platforms

Professor Rebecca Wexler discusses a key problem with using a proprietary algorithm in the criminal legal system

Professor Tejas Narechania says President Biden’s recent executive order concerning technology, competition and consumer choice, includes so many different directives and requests in so many disparate areas is itself a point worth paying attention to. The article also cites and links to Prof. Narechania’s recent paper.

The New York Times reviews Savala Nolan’s book, Don’t Let It Get You Down

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains the significance of the Supreme Court decision protecting the free speech of students

Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute, discusses House Bill 4099, which would allocate $750 million dollars for federal grants to fund recycled water projects, such as turning wastewater into high-quality drinking water

David Carrillo, Executive Director of the California Constitution Center, says a plan under consideration in Richmond that could allow undocumented residents to vote in local elections, citing their lack of a public voice despite the “significant contributions” they make to the community and its economy, would not violate the California Constitution

Professor Claudia Polsky, director of the Environmental Law Clinic, discusses the EPA’s updated monitoring requirements for dispersants used in response to oil spills

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says former president Trump’s new lawsuit against Facebook, Instagram and Google will fail due to basic principles of constitutional law 

Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon says Allen & Co.’s Sun Valley “summer camp” has become the biggest matchmaking service for media companies

Lecturer Shanin Specter explains the statute of repose, which sets a strict time limit on liability after construction

Rachel Johnson-Farias, Executive Director, Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice, discusses the history of the reproductive justice movement and her professional perspective on the violation of reproductive rights that Britney Spears’ has testified to experiencing

Professor Khiara M. Bridges explains the origins and framework of Critical Race Theory and her scholarship concerning it

Professor Andrea Roth discusses Orange County’s “spit and acquit” program, about which she’s researched and written a paper 

Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses Critical Race Theory and debunks myths and misinformation

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky cautions against evaluating appeals courts by their Supreme Court reversal rates, and said the Ninth Circuit’s rate isn’t particularly notable when taking into account the overall rate

Erik Stallman, associate director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, discusses attempts by police officers to deter activist groups and civilians from sharing recordings of officers and other officials by playing pop music to trigger copyright removal

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Brandon V. Stracener suggest President Biden appointing Justice Kruger, who has executive branch experience and currently sits on a western state high court, would be a victory for diversity on several important fronts

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision reversing Bill Cosby’s conviction reminds us that even those who commit despicable crimes are protected by the Constitution

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says now is the time for Justice Breyer to step down if he wants someone with his values and views to take his place

Professor Dan Farber discusses the unprecedented wave of lawsuits, filed by cities and states across the US, aiming to hold the oil and gas industry to account for the environmental devastation caused by fossil fuels – and covering up what they knew along the way

Professor Jeffrey Selbin, director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic, says an unanimous Idaho Supreme Court decision on court fees sends a clear message that courts should not be in the business of making money off the poor

Professor David Oppenheimer, director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law, says bigotry, unconscious bias and systemic racism have long manifested themselves in the relationships minority farmers have with banks, seed companies and equipment wholesalers

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, explains the hurdles and learning curves cities face when they’re introducing rail projects

Lecturer Shanin Specter discusses his clients’ case against B. Braun which alleges toxic emissions from a company plant caused neighbors to develop sometimes fatal cancer cases

Professor Khiara M. Bridges, faculty director of the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice, discusses the legal implications of Britney Spears’ testimony and how it connects to a larger history of reproductive-rights violations

Professor Catherine Fisk says law has essentially incentivized companies to walk right up to the line of threatening their workforce

Professor Catherine Fisk says the Supreme Court decision limiting the ability of union organizers to enter the private property of growers in order to reach farmworkers in California will set a precedent for more challenges to unions and expand property owners’ rights, no matter the industry

Esq. Apprentice, a nonprofit helping low-income women of color train to become attorneys – which started by Rachel Johnson-Farias, Executive Director, Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice – is highlighted 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes legal arguments against D.C. statehood are really a partisan fight

Professor Chris Hoofnagle, Faculty Director at the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, suggests changes the new FTC chair could put in place, including developing a new basic internet privacy rule

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky appears on the Amicus podcast to discuss the sneaky significance of the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in the major religious freedom case Fulton v. City of Philadelphia

Professor Claudia Polsky, director of the Environmental Law Clinic, appears in a segment about PACE funding to discuss the ELC report, The Dark Side of the Sun: How PACE Financing Has Under-Delivered Green Benefits and Harmed Low-Income Homeowners 

Professor Jeffrey Selbin, director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic, explains the damage juvenile fines and fees do to families and says families can be responsible for fees from the probation department, the state court system, and even “child support” if their child ends up in the custody of the Oregon Youth Authority

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the current Supreme Court is a very conservative Court, even if we will only get glimpses of it this year

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes religious beliefs do not provide an exemption from civil rights laws and cannot be used as an excuse for discrimination

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act breaks no new legal ground, but has enormous practical significance in that it means that 21 million people will keep their health insurance coverage

Professor Khiara M. Bridges says critical race theory seeks to make real the promises of the 1964 Civil Rights Act

Professor Khiara M. Bridges says bans on critical race theory in public schools are an “intentional misrepresentation” 

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says industrialized nations have a moral obligation to help less-developed countries deal with climate change, because these nations have emitted and continue to be the source of the largest share of greenhouse gas pollution

Professor Catherine Fisk says frivolous suits are the price we all pay for having legal rights and a court system to enforce them

Professor Catherine Crump, Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, says facial recognition technology and analytics generally have been revolutionary because they’ve put an end to privacy by obscurity

Professor Peter Menell is one of four well-known copyright scholars who urged members of the influential American Law Institute to reject a proposed restatement of copyright law when the proposal comes up for a scheduled vote this week

Ken Alex, director of Project Climate at the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says nature-based solutions to the warming of the planet, which harness the power of nature to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, hold significant promise but need more research and investment

A Washington Post analysis of Van Buren v United States highlights Professor Orin Kerr’s twitter deep dive into the case

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky calls the federal decision to overturn California’s assault weapons ban “an extreme gun rights reading of the Second Amendment”

Professor William Fernholz discusses the federal appeal court decision in the torture and asylum case of Elmer Rogel Lopez. Two graduating students, Rianna Hidalgo and Kelsey Miller, prepared the briefs and delivered the oral argument in this case

Professor Orin Kerr’s amicus brief is cited in explaining the Supreme Court’s decision in Van Buren v United States

Professor Orin Kerr’s amicus brief in Van Buren v. United States is highlighted in a story about the Supreme Court decision in the case

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, discusses Governor Newsom’s written argument – which she co-wrote – calling the death penalty racist and discriminatory against Black and Latino defendants

Ted Mermin, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, explains what the preliminary injunction against Bank of America means for victims of fraudulent activities on EDD debit cards

Lecturer Mallika Kaur explores how attorneys remain committed to work that affords few successes and often few forms of traditional validation, with Melissa Barbee, class of 2021, and public interest lawyer Taeva Shefler 

Eric Stover, Faculty Director of the Human Rights Center, is interviewed about the Tulsa Race Massacre and the PBS documentary he co-produced about it, “Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten”

Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses the history of and misunderstandings around Critical Race Theory

Lecturer Shanin Specter, says his father, the late Senator Arlen Specter, told him former President Donald Trump tried to intervene in the New England Patriots’ infamous 2008 Spygate scandal

Professor Andrea Roth appears on Legal Talk Today to discuss the 6th Amendment and virtual court

Lecturer Shanin Specter explains his firm’s successful vaccination and return-to-work policies

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the Biden administration is making a serious mistake in placing the self-interest of the Justice Department ahead of the people’s right to know if former Atty. Gen. William Barr acted to cover up Donald Trump’s possible engagement in obstruction of justice

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says the long-term success of a high speed rail system in California would hinge on whether cities can usher in dense urban development around transit stations

Professor Khiara M. Bridges separates facts from fiction regarding Critical Race Theory

Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, appears on PBS NewsHour to discuss Myanmar’s military use of killings to terrorize the country, which was the focus of an open source investigation from the Human Rights Center and the Associated Press

An investigation by the Associated Press and the Human Rights Center finds that Myanmar’s junta is hiding, mutilating and cremating bodies to terrorize its citizens since the military takeover

Professor Orin Kerr explains the law of traffic stops on NPR’s Politics podcast

Savala Nolan, Executive Director of the Henderson Center for Social Justice, reflects on the murder of George Floyd and says it falls to white people to understand what happened that day, and why it happened

The story of Berkeley Law’s forthcoming installation “A Time for Change,” contextualizing the removal of the name Boalt from our buildings, is explored in Law.com’s “Ahead of the Curve” column

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky is one of 36 constitutional experts who sent a letter telling congressional leaders they have the authority to make the nation’s capital the 51st state

Lecturer Shanin Specter explains his firm’s successful vaccination and return-to-work policies and advises other firms to follow suit

Professor Catherine Fisk says employment laws were developed with the annual flu in mind, not a global pandemic

Dean Erwin Chemersinky cautions that the Supreme Court’s granting of review of a Mississippi law that prohibits abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy should frighten all who believe that women should have the right to reproductive autonomy

Brandon Stracener, senior research fellow at the California Constitution Center, explains why the details and timing of the recall election matter

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, discusses the timeline for expanding California’s high speed bullet train

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Professor Melissa Murray, from NYU School of Law, outline how Justice Barrett’s presence has shifted the balance of the Supreme Court

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says Gov. Newsom’s failure to make any new commitments to the high-speed bullet train project in his latest budget proposal is “a pretty glaring omission”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the Supreme Court needs to provide broad protection for student speech but also make clear that schools can punish speech if it rises to the level of bullying and harassment

Professor Pamela Samuelsona is the lead drafter of amicus brief, joined by more than 60 law professors, supporting the Warhol Foundation’s petition for rehearing in light of the Google v Oracle decision

Professor Dan Farber says the Biden administration is unlikely to offer much in the way of concessions to a group of young Americans suing the federal government over actions they say contribute to climate change

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy argues that an expansion of the Treasury’s payment infrastructure for federal beneficiaries could provide a way to achieve both universal benefit distribution and universal bank access

Professor Tejas Narechania’s working paper, which finds that broadband providers offer slower service for the same price in areas where they lack competition, and proposes a model statute for rate regulation of a basic tier broadband service in areas without competition, is highlighted by The White House

Professor Frank Partnoy discusses fads – such as bitcoin, dogecoin and NFTs – and says we we might be surprised, when we look back at this time, at what turned out to be valuable, and what didn’t

Professor Emeritus Jesse Choper and Dean Erwin Chemerinsky agree that a proposal to allow paramedics, not just police, to order mental health holds raises no immediate civil liberties concerns 

Professor Chuck Weisselberg says the oldest and most vulnerable cohort of people within the federal prison system are at the mercy of the parole commission, an agency that’s been dying for decades

Professor Robert Bartlett discusses a new study he co-authored, which analyzed almost 10 million home loans and found blatant racial discrimination

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky urges Justice Breyer to retire and make way for a successor who would protect his Supreme Court legacy

Professor Kinch Hoekstra discusses the methodology of the history of political thought, the relationship between philosophy and history, the classical foundation of Western thought and the distinction between ancient and modern in Western philosophy

Professor Catherine Fisk discusses the PRO Act and says it would change is whether independent contractors have the right to form a union and bargain collectively

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, says race is, and it has always been, the most salient feature of the American death penalty

Lecturer Shanin Specter discusses the suit he’s filed alleging 16 people contracted cancer from exposure to toxic gas emissions from a medical device facility in Allentown, PA

Professor Catherine Fisk discusses Amazon’s controlling Delivery Service Provider contract and policies 

Professor Tejas Narechania says Apple v Epic Games is going to tell us a lot about how we structure industries and the technology industry going forward

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says a lawsuit asking California to permit more telemedicine for animals even after the pandemic ends may succeed on free speech grounds

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky examines a recent Supreme Court ruling that potentially changes the famous Civ Pro “International Shoe” precedent that out-of-state defendants can not be sued without their consent

Ken Alex, director of Project Climate at CLEE, says Berkeley Law’s Grizzly Corps could provide a transformative model, as President Biden’s Infrastructure Plan includes a $10 billion proposal to create a Civilian Climate Corps

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky urges Justice Breyer to retire in coming months while Democrats still have the power to confirm his replacement

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, appears on “Air Talk” to break down how politicians and businesses can look to minimize their carbon footprint without starting any beef with the people they serve

Mark Cohen, senior fellow and director of the Asia IP Project at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, says local protectionism is often apparent in Chinese court rulings

Professor Amanda Tyler appears on Above the Law’s podcast, The Jabot, to discuss co-authoring Justice, Justice, Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Professor Jonathan Simon says President Biden’s executive order ending Justice Department contracts with private prisons is “mostly symbolic”

Professor Ian Haney Lopez calls attacks on critical race theory “part of the right’s longstanding practice of dog whistle politics”

Professor Jonathan Simon says rehabilitative measures should be offered to all prisoners and are an effective means of addressing the underlying reasons individuals commit crimes, particularly violent offenses

Professor Ian Haney Lopez critiques a new paper that advises Democrats to avoid racial justice frames

Lecturer Shanin Specter weighs the pros and cons of vaccine passes

Megan Graham, Clinical Supervising Attorney at the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, discusses concerns that Cellebrite’s cellphone data extraction software – used by law enforcement agencies the world over – has severe cybersecurity flaws that could make it vulnerable to hacking 

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, appears on “State of The Bay” to discuss the Derek Chauvin verdict and and how it fits into the context of a criminal justice system that has long been plagued by racial bias

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the Supreme Court and the courts of appeals have been very restrictive with regard to finding state-created danger, as Los Angeles seeks to overturn a sweeping federal judicial order requiring them to offer shelter to everyone on skid row

Professor Jonathan Simon says he is he is skeptical of claims that the Chauvin verdict will be overturned on the grounds that remarks from Maxine Waters prejudiced the jury

The Berkeley Center for Law and Technology hosted a webinar to analyze Google’s Supreme Court advocate and amici curiae  in Google v. Oracle

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why there is clearly a need for additional federal legislation to reform policing

Ken Alex, director of Project Climate at CLEE, discusses carbon vacuums: giant vacuums that can suck up carbon from the air and store it underground

Professor Claudia Polsky and the Environmental Law Clinic are representing several groups filing suit to force the EPA to upgrade its quarter-century-old plan for responding to oil spills that allows harmful oil dispersants to be used copiously

Professor Jonathan Simon discusses how the guilty verdict in the Chauvin case could be a turning point in the culture of policing and race relations in America

Professor Jonathan Simon explains what it will take to convict Officer Derek Chauvin

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, discusses President Biden’s push for electric cars

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses the wait for a verdict in the trial of Officer Derek Chauvin

Nancy Lemon says there needs to be less punishment and more rehabilitation for victims of domestic violence who are charged with crimes against their abusers

Professor Bertrall Ross is appointed to serve on President Biden’s newly formed Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States

Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, discusses her 2020 report, “Living with Impunity: Unsolved Murders in Oakland and the Human Rights Impact on Victims’ Family Members” and the systemic violence affecting Black Oakland residents  

Judge Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, says some form of virtual court is here to stay

Judge Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, discusses a recent opinion by federal judge Laurence Silberman, which suggested the Supreme Court to overrule New York Times vs. Sullivan, its unanimous 1964 decision that required government officials suing for libel to prove that the writer knowingly lied about them or recklessly disregarded the truth

Professor Peter Menell writes innovators, the software industry, and consumers should be grateful that copyright protection for the functional specifications of computer software is finally dead, now that the Supreme Court decision has come down in Google v Oracle

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, discusses the “Neighborhood Homes Investment Act,” which would establish a tax credit to finance homebuilding and retrofits in eligible low-income neighborhoods

Professor Bertrall Ross is appointed to serve on President Biden’s newly formed Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States

Carolyn Patty Blum, clinical professor emerita and senior research fellow at the Human Rights Center, advises Vice President Harris to look in our own backyard if she wants to address root causes of Central America migration

Professor Orin Kerr explains the 4th Amendment issues with the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles seizing private property

Mark Cohen, Senior Fellow and Director of BCLT’s Asia IP Project, suggests the U.S. build more vaccine-manufacturing capacity and then give those vaccines to countries in need

Lecturer Mallika Kaur talks to Judge Edward M. Chen about systemic discriminations and his decades of practice from both sides of the bench

Professor Jonathan Gould suggests filibuster reformers harness the Senate’s power over its own procedural rules to democratize the institution from within

Professor Peter Menell discusses the Supreme Court decision in Google v Oracle and says the ruling doesn’t necessarily mean software developed in a similar manner will always be protected under fair use

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says the permitting process for major transportation projects could add to delays in getting a Hyperloop system up and running in the United States

Professor Pamela Samuelson explains why the Supreme Court decision in Google v Oracle is so important in today’s interoperable world

Information from the Death Penalty Clinic’s report, “Whitewashing the Jury Box” is cited in a column about Brendon Woods, Alameda County’s chief public defender 

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says President Biden’s infrastructure package is a lifeline to the CA bullet train but it will not be enough to deliver the whole project

Professor Jonathan Simon discusses the prosecution’s strategy in the case against Derek Chauvin

Ted Lamm, Climate Policy Researcher at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says a patchwork of local climate goals means the move to all-electric buildings isn’t happening fast enough

Campus educators, including Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon, have produced a new explainer video on antisemitism and hope it will help combat ignorance of Jewish history, improve the discourse on issues related to Israel, and better the campus climate for Jewish and pro-Israel students

The East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) unveils a large-scale permanent art installation painted by Anavictoria Avila 

 Professor Robert Bartlett explains why one-size-fits-all relief programs might not be what small businesses need

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky takes a look at Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., the first Supreme Court case to address the ability of schools to impose discipline for speech out of school and over social media

Professor Amanda Tyler discusses co-authoring Justice, Justice, Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says access to EV charging stations needs to become more widespread and reliable if we want to increase electric vehicle ownership

Professor Catherine Crump, Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, discusses the clinic’s work to stop the federal Bureau of Prisons from reading emails incarcerated persons send to their attorneys

Heather Lewis, Clinic Supervising Attorney at the Environmental Law Clinic, describes ELC’s recent Public Utilities Commission filing that protests PG&E’s proposal to use polluting diesel power during public safety power shutoffs

Lecturer Shanin Specter calls for judicial oversight of aggregate settlements in mass torts to bring them more in line with class action deals

Brandon V. Stracener, senior research fellow at the California Constitution Center, explains what a potential recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom could look like

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says the environmental justice demands of California leaders are gaining power politically, at both the state and federal level 

Professor Pamela Samuelson says she expects more theatre than substance at today Big Tech hearing before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce

Professors Dan Farber and Andrew Bradt discuss the Supreme Court’s resolution of Ford Motor Co. v. Mont. Eighth Judicial Dist. Ct., a product liability case that clears a hurdle for a group of idled climate lawsuits

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky weighs in on the multiple missteps by U.S. News & World Report in its handling of the upcoming law school rankings

Lecturer Shanin Specter discusses a Pennsylvania Superior Court decision relating to the Fair Share Act 

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says the federal government should set a national goal for offshore wind energy production in the U.S. and open up more areas for federal leasing

An op-ed in the Washington Post suggests every Democrat who fears filibuster reform should read Professor Jonathan Gould’s new paper on “structural biases” in constitutional design

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program, and Ted Lamm, Climate Policy Researcher, at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, lay out a plan for California to develop an equitable, statewide strategy for transitioning to all-electric buildings 

Professor Jonathan Gould appears on the Lawfare podcast to discuss constitutional norms, the unwritten rules that govern how actors in our political system behave

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says Vice President Kamala Harris, as presiding officer of the Senate, can — and should — declare the current Senate filibuster rule unconstitutional

Professor Ian Haney Lopez advises Democrats on how they can win back working-class Latino and Black men

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses whether Democrats should end a senator’s ability to block legislation by endless speechmaking so they can accomplish their agenda

Professor Catherine Fisk explains the legal complexities of who can unionize

Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute, explains the benefits of California potentially putting solar panels on canals

Professor Jennifer M. Urban, Director of Policy Initiatives at the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, has been appointed chair of the new California Privacy Protection Agency board, tasked with enforcing the state’s landmark privacy law

Professor Claudia Polsky, director of the Environmental Law Clinic, discusses the new ELC report, The Dark Side of the Sun: How PACE Financing Has Under-Delivered Green Benefits and Harmed Low-Income Homeowners 

Professor Paul Schwartz says it is a violation of U.S. privacy statutes for people to pass TLOxp reports, which pull private information from a vast database of restricted information about individuals and businesses, on to news organizations

Professor Jennifer M. Urban, Director of Policy Initiatives at the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, has been appointed chair of the new California Privacy Protection Agency board, tasked with enforcing the state’s landmark privacy law

Professor Jennifer M. Urban, Director of Policy Initiatives at the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, is announced as the chair of the new California Privacy Protection Agency board, tasked with enforcing the state’s landmark privacy law

Professor Amanda Tyler discusses co-authoring Justice, Justice, Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says calls suggesting Justice Breyer step down are not receiving the same pushback seen when some legal scholars urged the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to step down

Professor Amanda Tyler appears on NPR’s Morning Edition to discuss Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue, her new book written with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why The American Rescue Plan reflects a dramatic shift in the role of the federal government in combating poverty

Professor Ian Haney Lopez will serve on the advisory board of The Emancipator, one of the nation’s first antislavery newspapers of the 19th century, which is being revived as part of a new project to discuss and debate racial justice in the U.S. today

Professor Amanda Tyler discusses her new book, written with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her decades-long relationship with the justice, and Ginsburg’s final thoughts on her legacy and hopes for the future of women’s rights

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, discusses a new analysis that says California must quickly ramp up permitting and building of solar, wind, battery storage and other technologies to meet its mandate of a 100% clean energy grid by 2045

Professor Amanda Tyler reflects on the special privilege of working closely with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg one last time

Legal advisers to the International Criminal Court, including Alexa Koenig, director of the Human Rights Clinic, have sued to challenge the Trump administration’s sanctions on the court’s prosecutors for investigating Israel and U.S. actions in Afghanistan — sanctions that the Biden administration has left intact so far

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky his participation in the “Julius Caesar” Shakespeare Trial

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, discusses Kern County’s approval of drilling for thousands of new wells despite opposition from farmers and activists

Professor Daniel Farber discusses the Biden administration’s consideration of a push for national ambient air limits on greenhouse gases

Jim Dempsey, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, says Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will have a hard time making a legal argument that social media companies have discriminatory policies that silence conservative voices

A group of former prosecutors and judges in Alabama this week joined a district attorney in seeking a new trial for Toforest Johnson, a Black man who has spent two decades on death row and is represented by the Death Penalty Clinic

Professor Catherine Fisk explains that the PRO Act applies only to rights to unionize and bargain collectively and says freelancers would have no competitive advantage from one state to another

Professor Ian Haney Lopez discusses the future of the Hispanic vote and says the Latinos most likely to vote Republican do so for racial reasons

Professor Tejas Narechania and Erik Stallman, associate director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, urge the court to dismiss the lawsuit filed by internet service providers challenging California’s law requiring that ISPs follow net neutrality rules

Professor Sonia Katyal says existing whistleblower law is totally insufficient and essential to protect talented researchers from being effectively muzzled 

Kristin Theis-Alvarez, Assistant Dean, Admissions & Financial Aid, discusses Berkeley Law’s commitment to recruiting Native American students

Professor Daniel Farber says a suit by 14 Republican attorneys general accusing President Joe Biden of exceeding his powers in an executive order regarding climate change appears tenuous

Professor Eric Biber discusses politically viable steps President Biden can take to reach his ambitious goal of putting the nation on a path to net-zero emissions by 2050

Mark Cohen, Senior Fellow and Director of BCLT’s Asia IP Project, explains how China’s increased penalties for trade secret theft could be used to target foreign businesses operating in the country 

Professor Sonia K. Katyal, with UCLA professor Angela R. Riley and UC-Berkeley doctoral candidate Rachel Lim, writes remedying the harms of the past will require more than simply changing a name or a logo, but it is a first step toward ensuring that racial stereotypes are retired to the annals of history

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes absentee ballots and voting by mail increase participation without any evidence of fraud and laws should facilitate, not limit, these efforts to increase voting

Professor Claudia Polsky says a lawsuit by a right-wing activist against UCLA could cause a chill on students’ First Amendment rights

Professor Peter Menell filed an amicus brief in American Axle & Manufacturing v. Neapco Holdings, LLC, the closely-watched Section 101 patent eligibility case involving driveshaft automotive technology

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says the idea  of delivering gasoline to motorists sends a bad message

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program, and research fellow Katie Segal, from the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, write California is well positioned to help the United States meet President Biden’s nationwide carbon neutrality goal

Dr. Rohini Haar discusses a new report by the Human Rights Center and Geneva-based Insecurity Insight, which identified more than 1,100 threats or acts of violence against health care workers and facilities last year

Dr. Rohini Haar discusses a new report by the Human Rights Center and Geneva-based Insecurity Insight, which identified more than 1,100 threats or acts of violence against health care workers and facilities last year

Professor Jennifer M. Urban, Director of Policy Initiatives at the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, and clinic students Jennifer A. Hewitt and Blaine Valencia discuss their work on behalf of Public.Resource.Org to advocate for California to clarify that its civil and criminal jury instructions are in the public domain

Lecturer Shanin Specter questions whether mass torts have gotten too big for a lawyer to adequately represent all their clients

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo, with Darien Shanske, predicts the power of local voters to impose taxes on themselves by majority vote using the initiative power might be here to stay

Professor Andrea Roth discusses Orange County’s forensic DNA database and says it is the largest in the country never authorized by a legislature

Professor Orin Kerr explains the murky legality of web scraping, as people turn to bots to get Covid-19 vaccination appointments

Professor Orin Kerr joins the Washington Post’s Cybersecurity Network, a group of high-level digital security experts from across government, the private sector, and security research community to vote in surveys on the most pressing issues in the field

Professor Jonathan Gould explains the role of the Senate parliamentarian in deciding whether Democrats can squeeze a federal minimum-wage hike into a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package using the budget reconciliation process

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, says race is the most salient feature of the American death penalty

Professor Khiara M. Bridges is featured in the Netflix documentary Amend: the Fight for America, particularly in episode 4, which examines the fight for women’s voting rights

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Stephen M. Duvernay write the US and CA Supreme Courts are moving in opposite directions – but not in the way you might think

Professor Charles Weisselberg discusses potential legal strategies as accused rioters say they thought it was OK to enter the Capitol

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy and Dean Erwin Chemerinsky encourage Congress can keep faith with the First Amendment by preventing social media platforms from discriminating

Professor Jonathan Gould explains the role of the parliamentarian in passing President Biden’s Covid-19 relief package

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses what Californians can expect from a conservative Supreme Court

Lecturer Shanin Specter encourages lawyers to remember to the principle that unpopular clients and causes need able representation

Professor Jonathan Simon discusses the CRISIS Act and says Governor Newsom’s desire to appear progressive has arguably outweighed his appetite to champion and enact legislation that reflects those values

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why, if former president Trump violated the law, he should be indicted and prosecuted and writes no one, especially not the president, can be above the law

Brandon V. Stracener, senior research fellow at California Constitution Center, discusses California’s Emergency Services Act, what powers it gives the governor and the State Legislature’s ability to be a check on those powers

Professor Laurel Fletcher, Director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, interviews the former high commissioner of Sri Lanka, who served from 2008 to 2014, about the role of her office in addressing the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka in the final stages of the war and since that time, and her views on what the council should do at its upcoming session

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes, in the case of former president Trump, our courts failed and the message to future presidents, and even other litigants, is just to protract litigation and sometimes it will go away

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky urges Democrats to look at how the Republicans reshaped the federal judiciary under former president Trump and take the opportunity to do the same

Lecturer Mallika Kaur interviews Clinical Professor Ty Alper, Associate Director of Death Penalty Clinic, about representing clients on death row, being hyper-aware of racial privilege and training next gen lawyers, 

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, urges U.S. and state policy makers to seize the opportunity to plan for a more sustainable, domestic electric vehicle supply chain

The Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies announces a $10 million gift and renaming as the Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies at UC Berkeley

Professor John Yoo, with Scott Atlas of the Hoover Institute, says lockdowns interfere with the constitutional rights to free speech and religion and the economic liberty of owners and workers

Lecturer Mallika Kaur discusses the farmers’ protests in India and the history that’s lead to widespread distrust of the government

Lecturer Mallika Kaur says the fight of the farmers in India is, at the heart of it, a fight against big monopolies owning everything we need to survive with dignity: medication, transportation, education, and food

Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, discusses the use of social media evidence to create a narrative as one piece of the evidentiary puzzle ahead of the impeachment trial of former president Trump

Data published by the Policy Advocacy Clinic showing the high cost of collecting juvenile fees is cited as Oregon considers a bill to end juvenile fines and fees 

Judge Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, discusses the increasing number of federal judges who are taking senior status

Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, discusses new evidence of a cover-up by US Customs & Border Patrol in the case of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas’s killing by federal agents

Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, discusses new evidence of a cover-up by US Customs & Border Patrol in the case of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas’s killing by federal agents

Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, discusses evidence of a “shadow investigation” that has emerged in the case of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas’s killing by federal agents

Professor Stephen Sugarman says San Francisco’s lawsuit against the school district is a first step toward a plan, but it’s still contingent on the union agreeing to send teachers back to the classroom

Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses conservative states’ introducing bills banning abortion on the grounds of race, sex or the diagnosis of a fetal abnormality, with the aim to push a case before the Supreme Court

Lecturer Shanin Specter applauds the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approval of a settlement with Met-Ed, a FirstEnergy Corp. electricity provider, in the death of 31-year-old man

PBS announces a documentary premiering in May about the Tulsa Race Massacre, known as the deadliest incident of racial violence in American history, featuring Eric Stover, Faculty Director of the Human Rights Center

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the Supreme Court’s ruling in Taylor v. Riojas is a rare instance in which the high court rejected a claim of qualified immunity and made clear that no case on point is required in order to hold a government officer liable

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, with Ngozi Nezianya, counsel at Protect Democracy, writes the violence on Jan. 6 should not be used as an excuse to thwart lawful assemblies and protests in Florida, or in any other state

Professor Christopher Kutz reviews Michael Sandel’s The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? and explains why a public, widely accessible merit-based system such as the University of California is our best hope

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky thinks Donald Trump and attorney Rudy Giuliani could be successfully prosecuted for inciting the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol by supporters of the former president

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, with Miriam Aroni Krinsky, encourages the courts to reject a legal challenge that attempts to derail Los Angeles D.A. George Gascón’s criminal justice reforms

Ted Mermin, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, hopes the Legislature will come back together and extend the reach of rent moratorium relief

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses the latest impeachment and what happens next in terms of process and fallout

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says state governments likely have the ability to mandate that citizens receive the COVID-19 vaccine

Brandon V. Stracener, senior research fellow at the California Constitution Center, says anti-maskers protesters who believe the ADA and federal law protect them are wrong

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Burt Neuborne write that, in order for President Biden to get anything done, Democrats must find a way to limit the Republicans’ use of the filibuster 

Professor Robert Merges discusses the complexities of international patent law, as part of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology and Beijing’s Tsinghua University’s Conference on Transnational IP Litigation

Lecturer Shanin Specter says law firms dropping controversial clients should tread lightly to avoid sending message of disloyalty to existing and potential clients

Professor Khiara M. Bridges says the myth of a salt-retention gene causing hypertension in Black people has been perpetuated by researchers not looking at factors such as environmental injustices and inaccessibility of health care

Ted Lamm, Climate Policy Researcher at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, lays out what the Biden administration could do for the environment, particularly in California

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg reflects on the passing of her father from COVID-19 and the support she found by joining a virtual grief group

Professor Ian Haney Lopez says the GOP’s rhetoric has convinced white people to see government programs as giveaways to undeserving people of color

Data from CLEE’s “Reversing Environmental Rollbacks” project was used to help create the Washington Post’s webpage tracking the Biden administration’s environmental actions

Professor Aaron Edlin says power isn’t a violation of antitrust law, even though big tech companies’ actions over the past week reinforce just how much power they have

The Human Rights Center’s Investigations Lab worked with the Associated Press to monitor any potential attacks as well as misinformation related to the inauguration

Ted Lamm, Climate Policy Researcher at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, explains some immediate steps President Biden can take to undo Trump environmental policies

Professor Dan Farber says to succeed, Democrats can’t afford to lose any votes from their side

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says there is historical precedent for the Senate trial of an ex-president

Ted Lamm, Climate Policy Researcher at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, discusses the process of rolling back Trump climate policies and the database, “Reversing Environmental Rollbacks,” CLEE compiled

Ted Lamm, Climate Policy Researcher at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says when it comes to climate change we are facing a ticking clock, as President Biden looks to rollback policies the Trump administration put in place

Professor Orin Kerr says in order to prosecute social media companies for the riots at the Capitol, there would need to be evidence of a clear intention to assist in the violence

Professor Catherine Crump, Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, says law enforcement should not use facial recognition technology widely until racial disparities are fixed

Lecturer Shanin Specter discusses the complexities of the decision on the “Marsy’s Law” ballot question in Pennsylvania

Professor Jonathan Simon says Californians who witnessed the failures of mass incarceration need to remind the public of the unacceptable human and financial costs of going backward

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says giving social media firms the power to permanently ban politicians could have serious ramifications for the future of free speech on the internet

Lecturer Mallika Kaur writes the rebellion of Dulla Bhatti is a reminder of the region’s long history of agrarian protest – and its fight for justice

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says laws outlawing militias are constitutional so long as they carefully define what is a militia and what conduct is prohibited

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says Facebook and Twitter can suspend who they want and there is no First Amendment issue

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains what happening at the Supreme Court and how will it impact the future

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says Twitter and Facebook are within their rights to remove posts by President Trump that rise to the level of incitement, but that outright bans by the communication platforms are a step too far and set a dangerous precedent

Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, appears on the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime’s podcast series to discuss her work on behalf of the families of victims of human rights violations

Lecturer Shanin Specter weighs in on the lawsuit against his former co-counsel, Thomas Girardi 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky argues against rushing an impeachment vote

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky urges Gov. Newsom to consider former Berkeley Law professor and California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu for California Attorney General

Professor Bertrall Ross discusses the legal implications of possibly trying to remove President Trump from power

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says guardrails for our democracy worked, but it could have been different

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky suggests Justice Breyer consider stepping down when there is a Democratic President and a Democratic Senate to replace him

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains how the impeachment process could work in the wake of the riots at the Capitol

Berkeley Law experts reflect on the the attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol 

Professor Bertrall Ross discusses options for removing President Trump from office

Professor Bertrall Ross explains why the definition of the 25th amendment must be kept narrow and precise

Professor Dan Farber discusses potential legal fallout from the riots at the Capitol

Lecturer Shanin Specter discusses his efforts to reform the rules and practices relating to mass torts

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains how the 25th Amendment could be used to remove President Trump from office

Professor Bertrall Ross discusses the implications of the assault on the U.S. Capitol for President Trump and American democracy

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Nicholas Cotter ask whether and how cash bail will survive

Professor Catherine Fisk says Google employees’ union’s relatively low numbers should be expected, if not embraced, as a start

Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, discusses the murder of activist Berta Cáceres‎

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky weighs in on possible outcomes as the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals grapples with the constitutionality of Gov. Newsom’s pandemic restrictions on places of worship

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses President Trump’s phone call with Georgia Sec. of State Raffensperger and whether his conduct was criminal 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Professor John Yoo weigh in on whether President Trump could and should pardon himself

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, appears on The Morning Report to discuss Covid-19’s potential long term impact on traffic, public transportation and how Californians get from point A to point B

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says the city of San Diego’s disputed greenhouse-gas emissions numbers look suspect

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses the federal appeals court decision allowing information requests by congressional oversight panels without the approval of majority members

Lecturer Shanin Specter says San Francisco needs a prosecutor who is as tough on drug dealers as on police officers

Judge Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, discusses judicial stress and anxiety during the pandemic

 Lecturer Carla Shapreau discusses the theft of a rare 18th century violin

Lecturer Shanin Specter says a proposal to change the way Pennsylvania voters elect state Supreme Court justices and appellate court judges violates the law and the state constitution

Ted Mermin, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, says Bank of America may be liable for fraudulent activities on EDD debit cards

Research and analysis of the Emergency Services Act by California Constitution Center fellows Stephen Duvernay and Brandon Stracener is cited as San Bernardino County asks California Supreme Court to overturn Governor Newsom’s stay-at-home order

Professor Sonia Katyal says existing whistleblower law is totally insufficient and essential to address issues at the intersection of artificial intelligence and civil rights

Lecturer Shanin Specter discusses the paralysis in the court system in relation to catastrophic injury cases

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky offers advice to President-elect Biden on handling the investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes

Lecturer Shanin Specter successfully had a lawsuit remanded and gave the court-ordered attorneys fees to a case-related charity

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says there is no clear answer to the question of whether President Trump can pardon himself, but there is a strong argument that such a pardon would not and should not be constitutional

Lecturer Mallika Kaur explores the farmers’ protests in India and says women’s participation challenges the narrative that the protest is only about angry men, dangerous and entirely unwilling to listen to reason

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the LA Superior Court ruling to enjoin a ban on outdoor dining ignores a fundamental constitutional principle: Government regulation of business is allowed as long as it is reasonable

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says mask mandates do not violate anyone’s constitutional rights and it’s a shame health issues have become politicized 

Professor John Yoo urges progressives to see the value of the Electoral College

Professor Sonia Katyal, co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, discusses the gamble companies are taking when they consider brand value vs. reputation, as the Supreme Court overturns a key provision of the Lanham Act, allowing trademarking of disparaging names

Lecturer Mallika Kaur discusses the unprecedented farmers protests in India and the solidarity protests across CA

Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, explains the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations which offers guidance on how social media evidence can be used in international criminal proceedings

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why the SCOTUS decision in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, New York v. Cuomo is hugely important and what it tells us about the new court

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses President Trump’s numerous court cases and the instances when he has been checked, or not, by the courts

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, says the Trump DOJ is exploiting executions for political reasons

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the Supreme Court’s differing decisions regarding large religious gatherings during the pandemic are a result of the addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says Biden’s Justice Department won’t be working against litigants in climate cases as the Trump administration did

Lecturer Shanin Specter weighs in as Pennsylvania plans to begin in-person civil trials again

Professor Orin Kerr discusses the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and more clarity about what the law means is needed

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says an exodus of federal judges considering retirement will depend on which party controls the Senate

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that the Supreme Court’s decision to bar New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo from putting restrictions on religious gatherings is the indicative of the impact Justice Amy Coney Barrett will have on the court

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes we should loudly condemn those who have enabled President Trump’s false claims of election fraud by their words and by their silence

Professor Orin Kerr explains pros and cons of virtual SCOTUS arguments

Professor Taeku Lee discusses his recent survey of Asian American voters in Georgia that found 41 percent voted for the first time in this election

Lecturer Shanin Specter appeared on ALI’s Reasonably Speaking podcast to explore multidistrict litigation

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy writes that President-elect Biden may have the opportunity to solve the nation’s $1.6 trillion student debt problem

Professor Chris Hoofnagle, Faculty Director at the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, says privacy disclosures for apps can be lacking and asks whether a reasonable consumer would agree to them if explicitly asked

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why we are used to hearing agendas from political candidates, but not judges, in reaction to Justice Samuel Alito’s recent Federalist Society speech 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and UC Chancellor Howard Gillman say case-by-case reviews of religious beliefs versus government interests can never work, as the Supreme Court debates Fulton v. Philadelphia

Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, explains why it’s critically important social media companies preserve evidence of abuse

Lecturer Shanin Specter asks the PA Supreme Court to exercise extraordinary jurisdiction to get his client’s case moving again after it was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that the US is not a democracy because the government we live under is profoundly anti-majoritarian

Lecturer Mallika Kaur, as part of her ongoing series exploring managing trauma and the demands of lawyering, explores the intersection of law and policy and highlights the dire need for leading by example 

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg writes the Biden/Harris administration’s commitment to veterans gives hope this Veterans Day

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, discusses immediate steps the Biden administration could take to help the environment 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says there are six votes on the Supreme Court to dramatically limit affirmative action and to overrule earlier decisions allowing it, regardless of who is President

Professor Jonathan Simon discusses the opportunities for bail reform at the local level, after Prop 25 fails 

Professor Ian Haney Lopez explores the ways President Trump exploited status anxiety within the Latino community and writes that we should think of race not in terms of fixed identities but in terms of complex beliefs about belonging, respect and threat

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says Californians’ attitudes and impulses around incarceration have changed

Professor Bertrall Ross appears on NPR’s On Point to discuss the latest litigation around the 2020 presidential election

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses President Trump’s vow to take the fight over election results all the way to the Supreme Court

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains says electors must vote how the state dictates

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky contemplates how the Supreme Court, with three justices appointed by Donald Trump, could anoint him to stay in the White House

Emily Bruce, Director of Equity and Inclusion, discusses ways students can cope with election anxiety

Professor Bertrall Ross appears on KQED’s Forum to discuss the role of the Electoral College and the ongoing debate over its relevance

Professor Chris Hoofnagle discusses CA Prop 24 and says the writing is on the wall that privacy law is coming

Professor Abhay Aneja’s paper, “No Credit For Time Served? Incarceration and Credit-Driven Crime Cycles”, is cited in a article examining the long term impact of court debts and incarceration

Professor Sarah Song says the notion of many voices being heard, and which voices prevail, is going to be an ongoing struggle even with the forces that 2020 has unleashed

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky weighs in on whether Supreme Court term limits are possible under the constitution

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes of his concern for what it will mean to have a Supreme Court majority that embraces the values of the far right of the Republican Party and is far more conservative than the electorate

EBCLC’s Clinical Supervisors Seema Rupani and Hewot Shankute write there is a real appetite for progressive reforms that will increase stable, decent, affordable housing for years to come

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, and Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explain the unprecedented court filing that asserts the state’s death penalty law is applied in a racist manner against African Americans

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains what the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett will mean for upcoming cases on the Supreme Court docket

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains the key issues and history of the Electoral College

 Professor Robert Bartlett discusses the disparate impact of COVID-19 on small businesses

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy weighs in on Google’s likely defense in a suit filed by Android users alleging an app monopoly

Lecturer Mallika Kaur, as part of her ongoing series exploring managing trauma and the demands of lawyering, speaks to Berkeley Law alum Taina Gomez, Solano County DPD about self care, the culture that compounds trauma for clients and lawyers of color and what it means to be committed to social justice as a child of immigrants. 

Professor Amanda Tyler’s upcoming book, authored with the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, entitled Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue: A Life’s Work Fighting for a More Perfect Union, is a review of Ginsburg’s legal legacy, filtered through her memories and perspective

The Washington, D.C. Attorney General has filed a lawsuit in parallel to a civil suit, represented by lecturer Shanin Specter, against the Washington Hebrew Congregation in relation to child sexual abuse of preschoolers

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky asks if we really want our rights to be determined by the understandings of centuries ago?

Professor Bertrall Ross appears on NPR’s On Point podcast to discuss the integrity of the votes cast by America’s 538 electors

Savala Trepczynski, Executive Director of the Henderson Center for Social Justice, explain how defunding the police protects black women and says we should spend money on helping people, not hurting them

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says local races have huge long-term implications on land use and how communities adapt to a changing climate

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky breaks down Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission – what it meant for the couple and what it means for couples moving forward

Professor Andrea Roth discusses CA Prop 20, saying putting more money into collecting DNA is a a zero-sum game

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky appears on The Brian Lehrer Show to discuss affirmative action as an issue in the presidential race 

Professor Khiara Bridges discusses white supremacy and how scholars and activists talk about racism

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says a shift towards states’ rights could lead to a new era of progressive legislation

Professor Catherine Fisk explains why qualified immunity creates a too high a bar for victims of police violence

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says Judge Amy Coney Barrett has gone further than other SCOTUS candidates in refusing to answer questions

Professor David Singh Grewal, with Joshua P. Zoffer, explains why court reform for the sake of democracy becomes all the more urgent when faced by the prospect of a minoritarian majority on the Supreme Court

Professor Bertrall Ross discusses the mechanisms by which a majorly conservative U.S. Supreme Court would affect the sociopolitical landscape of the country

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes Democrats must use the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings as an opportunity to convey how much President Trump and the Republicans will undermine the rights of all Americans by putting Judge Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court

Lecturer Shanin Specter appears on the Court Radio Show to discuss tort issues related to COVID-19

Lecturer Shanin Specter discusses the president’s civil liability for Covid transmission

Ted Mermin, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, offers consumers tips on the complicated business of getting out of gym memberships

Professor Chris Hoofnagle discusses Prop 24 and says an opt-out system may not be perfect, but it is the only workable approach

Professor Pamela Samuelson predicts the usual right-left splits won’t apply in Google v Oracle

Professor Tejas Narechania says Google v Oracle poses two big questions for the Supreme Court

Professor Catherine Fisk says OSHA may feel themselves powerless to protect West Wing workers from exposure to the virus by the president

Lecturer Mallika Kaur asks what “defund the police” means in terms of response to domestic violence incidents, currently the single largest category of calls received by police?

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says conservatives on the Supreme Court are moving strongly toward creating a right of people to exercise their religious freedom to discriminate against others

Professor Orin Kerr predicts Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the Supreme Court will bring a considerable and rapid shift to the right

Lecturer Shanin Specter examines the president’s civil liability for Covid transmission, following his campaign fundraiser in Bedminster 

Jim Dempsey, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, discusses the legal cases around the sale of TikTok

Professor Khiara Bridges says when public agencies share private information it can lead to serious unexpected consequences 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why no start of a new U.S. Supreme Court term ever has been like this one

Professors Bertall Ross & Kathryn Abrams discuss efforts by Republicans to reduce the number of votes cast by people of color, swinging a close election to incumbent President Donald Trump and away from Democrat Joe Biden

Professor john a. powell, Director of the Othering and Belonging Institute, says critical race theory has lifted up the racial gaze of America

Professor Bertrall Ross says replacing Justice Ginsburg with a woman with different ideology reinforces the idea that identity matters more than the substantive values that the individuals represent

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says adding Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court would make it the most conservative Supreme Court since the Lochner era

Rachel Johnson-Farias, Executive Director of the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice, says the judiciary has been attacking Roe v Wade with “death by a thousand cuts”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes the disconnect between the nation’s highest judicial panel and the people who live with its rulings is starker than ever

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says Judge Amy Coney Barrett is far to the right of most in American society

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky advises Senate Democrats to focus on what Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation will mean for the Constitution, the country and for people’s lives

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, discusses Governor Newsom’s executive order banning sales of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035

Professor Orin Kerr discusses the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her legacy, and the impact a Supreme Court vacancy may have on the Presidential Election

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, says telecommuting may be more politically palatable in the Bay Area, but policies such as road pricing and building housing near transit would go further to cut congestion and emissions.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains how Republican-appointed judges seem more inclined to advance the party’s interests than uphold the Constitution

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and UC Chancellor Howard Gillman warn that the addition of another conservative justice to the Supreme Court could be a disaster for Americans’ access to healthcare

Professor Amanda Tyler discusses Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s impact and legacy

Professor Bertrall Ross discusses the issues and concerns surrounding the upcoming election

Professor Khiara Bridges explains the history and importance of Critical Race Theory 

Professor Catherine Fisk explains the issues with the Labor Department’s proposal to adopt a shorter, simpler test for when employers may legally classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees who are covered by federal minimum wage and overtime law

Dean Erwim Chemerinsky advocates for an “open book” bar exam, as the California Supreme Court says no to “diploma privilege” 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says Democrats should move to expand the size of the Supreme Court if Republicans force a vote on Justice Ginsburg’s replacement through without President Trump first being re-elected

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and UC Chancellor Howard Gilman, co-authors of a new book, The Religion Clauses: The Case for Separating Church and State, discuss the difference between separationist and accomodationist views, the reason they felt that it was an opportune time to write this book, and what they hope to accomplish with its release

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, weighs in on the significance of Governor Newsom’s plan to eliminate sales of gas-powered cars and trucks in the state by 2035

Professor Khiara Bridges discusses the evolution of Critical Race Theory and expresses doubt President Trump even knows what it is

Professor Amanda Tyler reflects on her experiences with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why, if President Trump’s nominee is confirmed, we’ll have the most radically conservative Court since the early 1930s

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says President Trump’s use of the Justice Department for political gain is exceptional and unprecedented

Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center, explains why social media companies’ use of algorithms to remove content can hinder investigations into incidents

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, discusses Gov. Newsom’s promise to accelerate the state’s response to global warming

Dean Erwin Chemerinksy President Trump’s executive order essentially banning WeChat has chilling effect on the exercise of free speech that is profound and constitutionally unsupportable

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that there’s a way for Democrats to make clear they will not tolerate Republicans trying to fill Justice Ginsburg’s seat in advance of the election

Professor Amanda Tyler discusses her experiences with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the Trump administration’s efforts to block downloads of TikTok and WeChat are unprecedented, even in the context of trade restrictions, and unconstitutional

Anya Grossman, Director of Global Outreach and Professional Engagement, and James Dempsey, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, explain how Berkeley Law’s LLM program keeps the curriculum relevant 

Lecturer Mallika Kaur, as part of her ongoing series exploring managing trauma and the demands of lawyering, speaks to critical race theorist and feminist legal scholar Angela P. Harris about challenging homogeneity of the profession and academy;  the genius and struggle of women scholars; emotional intelligence for strong lawyering; the trap of “diversity” without power-sharing; and the potential of Juneteenth, 2020

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and UC Chancellor Howard Gillman, co-authors of a new book titled The Religion Clauses: The Case for Separating Church and State, argue the Supreme Court’s majority is using the religion clause to strike down hard-fought advances in civil rights

Professor Ian Haney Lopez, with Tory Gavito, writes that President Trump’s competitiveness among Latinos is real and suggests Joe Biden’s key to reaching Latino voters is to link racism and class conflict

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that the Trump administration’s attack on critical race theory is profoundly anti-intellectual and wrong 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says comments on the arrest of journalist Josie Huang and says a reporter on a public sidewalk observing what’s going on is constitutionally protected

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses his new book, “The Religion Clauses: The Case for Separating Church and State,” and how the Supreme Court’s First Amendment law concerning religion is likely to change in the years ahead

Professor Orin Kerr’s work, and his 2011 paper titled, “Why Courts Should Not Quantify Probable Cause” are cited in this Bloomberg Opinion column 

California law deans, including Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, urge the California Supreme Court to drop remote proctoring for the fall bar exam and eliminate limits on materials students may consult during the two-day online test

A look at the flow of lawyers moving from BigLaw to public interest work cites “Making Public Interest Lawyers,” a large-scale study looking at law careers authored by Professor Catherine Albiston, along with Scott Cummings and Rick Abel of UCLA Law

An examination of oil spills, chemical dispersants and related lawsuits against the EPA, including the suit filed by Claudia Polsky and the Environmental Law Clinic

The Human Rights Center’s Investigations Lab contributed to this in depth report on the situation in Portland

Judge Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, says his colleagues on the bench face a couple of “unique challenges” when it comes to evaluating their own temperament

The work of Innocence Project co-founder and special counsel Barry Scheck, (class of ’74) lands Berkeley Law on the list 

Professor Catherine Fisk says union protections make it difficult to charge police officers with crimes

Professor Kenneth Ayotte discusses the tricky, no-win business of valuation during bankruptcy

Professor Jonathan Simon says a combination of a new state law and the current police reform climate may have swayed the Alameda DA to prosecute the case of a police officer who fatally shot Steven Taylor at a Walmart store in April 

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy writes that a permanent payroll tax credit is a necessary step toward guaranteeing a living wage for all Americans

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that while it should be the role of the federal courts and the Supreme Court to protect the right to vote, the five conservative Supreme Court justices have strongly indicated that the solutions are not to come from federal courts

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says President Trump’s latest attempt to cut funding for “anarchist jurisdictions” is “clearly unconstitutional”

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, appears on Forum to discuss the Trump administration’s environmental record and its impact

Ted Mermin, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, says Californians facing a financial cliff or targeted by predatory financial products “are going to find that someone’s got their back” 

Professor Catherine Fisk weighs in as San Francisco passes an emergency ordinance that temporarily bars employers from taking adverse action against employees and job applicants who tested positive for Covid-19 or who are or were isolating due to Covid-19 symptoms or exposure

Professor Malcolm Feeley discusses the political history of ‘Law and Order’ 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that the Supreme Court’s dealings with issues concerning COVID-19 and the election process have made clear that it does not want the federal courts changing the rules of an election, even when necessary to protect the right to vote in a pandemic

Dr. Rohini Haar, Human Rights Center Research Fellow, discusses “less lethal weapons” used to disperse crowds and the serious, sometimes deadly, injuries they can cause

The LA Times Editorial Board calls for the passing of AB 3070, a bill that addresses discrimination in jury selection, and points to Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic’s report, “Whitewashing the Jury Box” to support the need for action

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky comments on the importance of The Hatch Act, as members of the Trump administration are called out for potentially violating it

Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon says the United States’ forcing TikTok to sell itself is “really unprecedented” 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that the RNC events at the White House are blatant violations of The Hatch Act – the most recent of so many instances of Trump flouting federal laws and the norms of the office

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses key lessons the legal profession can learn from attempts to administer the July bar exam and how the pandemic presents a chance to rethink how law school graduates will take the test in the future

Jim Dempsey, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, says TikTok’s lawsuit against the Trump administration faces an uphill fight, but the company may be successful with a due process argument

Savala Trepczynski, Executive Director of the Henderson Center for Social Justice, writes that people of color have had a golden rule that said be twice as good and calls for white folks to adopt a version of this rule for themselves and their anti-racist work: be twice as kind

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why the coronavirus makes California’s ‘student borrower bill of rights’ essential

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why John Eastman’s theory that Kamala Harris may not be eligibile to be Vice President are wrong under the language of the 14th Amendment and under Supreme Court precedent

Professor Jonathan Simon explains why this moment in time resents a unique opportunity to reduce prison overcrowding by making reforms, particularly by releasing women who could safely be released

Savala Trepczynski, Executive Director of the Henderson Center for Social Justice, writes about the connection between the murders of her great, great grandmother and Breonna Taylor – both black women, both killed in their homes by police, both still waiting for justice

Lecturer Shanin Specter explains why Amazon should be regarded as a supplier for the purposes of product liability law

Professor Rebecca Wexler says the California Supreme Court opinion in Touchstone v Facebook reflects a real skepticism of Facebook’s claims about the Stored Communications Act

In his latest Deal Professor column in DealBook, Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon considers what TikTok could have done differently to avoid its current trouble with the Trump administration

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky weighs in on legal challenges related to Trump’s most recent executive orders

Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, discusses the murder of activist Berta Cáceres‎ and her role in the fight to bring her killers to justice

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Stephen M. Duvernay look at some of the 12 measures in the California November general election

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses the reasons California has filed or joined more than 90 lawsuits against the Trump administration

Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, discusses the murder of activist Berta Cáceres‎ and the fight to bring her killers to justice

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that President Trump’s latest executive orders are unconstitutional and exceed presidential authority

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, explains why Batson process isn’t working on the state level, as prosecutors use Black Lives Matter to exclude black people from juries

Lecturer Spencer Pahlke explains how to use cross-examination skills to deal with Covid-deniers

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman reflect on the 2019-20 Supreme Court term and the decisions concerning the protection for religion, as part of a SCOTUSblog symposium on the Roberts court and the religion clauses

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, discusses the environmental impact of single family zoning laws

Professor Khiara Bridges shares five fun facts and discusses the intersection of ballet and the law (page 21)

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky looks at recent Supreme Court actions in cases related to the pandemic, and shares what can be learned from them 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky advocates for the lower passing score for the California bar to be retroactive to February 2020

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, along with AJ Kutchins and Brendon Woods, writes that the time for waiting is over and the California Legislature must pass AB3070

David Carrillo, Executive Director of the California Constitution Center, explains why remote voting by California legislators is constitutional and should be allowed

Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, applauds the use of live audio or video by federal and state courts 

Professor Roxanna Altholz, co-director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, comments on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ investigation into the killing of a man at the San Diego-Tijuana border a decade ago, in which she is co-counsel for the victim’s family

Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon, in his recurring Deal Professor column in DealBook, explores why special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are having a moment

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that President Trump cannot postpone the election and Republicans, Democrats, conservatives and liberals must all loudly condemn the idea as antithetical to the most basic aspects of a democratic society

Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, dicusses the benefits of “virtual court”

Professor John Yoo and Sai Prakash debate whether Trump’s aggressive fight for presidential power goes beyond the Founders’ original designs

Professor John Yoo discusses presidential power, the Supreme Court DACA ruling and his new book, Defender in Chief: Donald Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky weighs in on the California Supreme Court’s decision to reduce the state bar exam’s passing score

Lecturer Mallika Kaur, as part of her ongoing series exploring managing trauma and the demands of lawyering, interviews UC Hastings Professor Naomi Roht-Arriaza

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that President Trump’s use of federal agents in Portland is not only outrageous, it is clearly unconstitutional

Professor Jennifer Urban explains why the push to strengthen the Digital Millennium Copyright Act could end up squelching online speech, how her research informs her thinking and advocates reformulating DMCA incentives

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains the ways federal agents in Portland appear to be going well beyond the authority to protect federal property and the rights the arrests of protesters are violating

Professor Orin Kerr says while the federal government does have the right to send troops to cities and states to protect its interests, the issue is what the troops are doing

Professor Pamela Samuelson, co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, backs the Internet Archive’s argument that its digital lending qualifies as fair use, comparable to traditional library lending, and says the idea that lending out a book is illegal is just wrong

Professor Jonathan Gould, with Olatunde C.A Johnson, writes that the Supreme Court’s suspicion of Congress’s competence and motives should be worrying for anyone who cares about the most democratic branch’s ability to serve as a check on presidential power and confront an ever-growing list of policy challenges

Professor Franklin Zimring argues that new incentives and stiff penalties can reduce needless police killings

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program, and Ted Lamm, Climate Policy Researcher at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, write that California’s electrical grid is getting cleaner, but it is still not well positioned to deal with a changing climate with its web of decades-old poles and wires

The Human Rights Center Investigations Lab contributed to a study that found Uighur workers in forced labor settings in China are making masks for the US and other countries (credit to the lab – staff and students – in the video)

Professor Orin Kerr weighs in on the constitutionality of detention of protesters in Washington state by federal officers from the U.S. Marshals Service and Department of Homeland Security

Lecturer Mallika Kaur interviews a Fresno-based immigration lawyer to discuss the importance of giving clients more control and how to stay healthy while doing trauma inducing work, as part of her ongoing series exploring managing trauma and the demands of lawyering

Professor Jonathan Simon discusses the impact of Justice Kennedy’s retirement and Justice Kavanaugh’s appointment on capital punishment cases

Lecturer Carrie Rosenbaum, with Ediberto Román, examines the flaws of the Trump administration’s immigration policy that would have forced international college students to leave the U.S, and explain and why it would have failed court scrutiny under the Administrative Procedure Act

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and Senior Research Fellow Stephen M. Duvernay ask why, if everything happening remotely is our new long-term reality, is the California legislative process on hold?

An amicus brief authored by Professor Seth Davis on behalf of congressional lawmakers is highlighted as the courts decide whether the Penobscot Nation has authority over its namesake river’s waters in Maine

Stephanie Campos-Bui, Clinical Supervising Attorney in the Policy Advocacy Clinic, discusses the decision from the Orange County Board of Supervisors to join other counties throughout California in ceasing collection of old juvenile fines and fees

Professor Holly Doremus discusses the the Great American Outdoors Act, a bill before Congress that would invest billions in national parks in California and nationwide

The Human Rights Center’s summer team contributed to a report on excessive police force and blinding of US protesters (credit at the end of the video)

Professor Rebecca Wexler discusses the issues with the current rules of evidence in criminal court, which do not account for the rise of forensic software, or for the entrance of trade secrets claims

Professor Franklin Zimring discusses the debate on Oakland around defunding the police

Professor Bertrall Ross explains the challenges prosecutors face in proving hate crime charges against a Martinez couple who allegedly defaced a Black Lives Matter mural

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky appeared on Slate’s Amicus podcast to examine the Supreme Court term, taking a close look at the Trump financial records cases, the ministerial exception cases, and a landmark decision about tribal lands in Oklahoma

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why the Covid-19 church singing ban is legally enforceable 

Coverage of “Whitewashing the Jury Box”, the Death Penalty Clinic report that found California prosecutors disproportionately strike people of color, especially African-Americans, from serving on juries

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky comments on yesterday’s Supreme Court decisions related the President Trump’s taxes and finances

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains what today’s Supreme Court decisions regarding President Trump’s taxes and finances means in the near and long term

Ted Lamm, Research Fellow at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, discusses California’s zero-emissions truck rule, which was approved last month, and explains the important health benefits for disadvantaged communities 

Professor Sonia Katyal, co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, explains how the Black Lives Matter movement is helping make long overdue change in racist branding

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky reacts to the selection of Dr. Michael V. Drake as the new president of the U.C. system

Bloomberg examines the ways the pandemic is the perfect storm for fraud and highlights the Berkeley Center for Law and Business’ annual “Fraud Fest”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses the impact of the new ICE regulations and steps the university is taking to protect our international students

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, discusses “Whitewashing the Jury Box”, the report she co-authored that found California prosecutors disproportionately strike people of color, especially African-Americans, from serving on juries

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky predicts the Supreme Court will focus on the separation of powers issues as they decide the case related to President Trump’s taxes 

Time looks at the movement for prosecutorial reform and highlights the case of Toforest Johnson, who is represented by the Death Penalty Clinic

Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon, in his recurring Deal Professor column in DealBook, says post-pandemic M.&A. is all about the big getting bigger and pushing their brands into new places

Dean Erwin Chemerinky and john a. powell, Director of the Othering and Belonging Institute, weigh in on the opportunities and challenges the new UC President faces, ahead of the announcement of the selection

Ted Lamm, Research Fellow at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, explains what recent Supreme Court decisions could mean for the Trump administration’s plans to roll back environmental protections

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg explains why the Senate should pass the PAWS for Veterans Therapy Act, which would create a five-year pilot program requiring the VA to fund service dogs for veterans with PTSD and other mental health conditions

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy writes that California should enact an “Automatic Application and Admission” plan for the UC system, to increase diversity across race and class lines at all UC campuses

Shanin Specter’s high-profile Philadelphia personal injury firm Kline & Specter has joined hundreds of companies that have decided to halt advertising on Facebook, due to concerns about the social media platform’s publication of hate speech and misinformation

Professor Amanda Tyler explores the potential ramifications of the Supreme Court decision in Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam

Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon, in his recurring Deal Professor column in DealBook, considers who benefits from public benefit corporations

Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon, in his recurring Deal Professor column in DealBook, considers who benefits from public benefit corporations

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky looks at today’s Supreme Court decision and what Chief Justice Roberts may have signaled about his a willingness of to follow precedent in the area of abortion rights

Stephen M. Duvernay, a senior research fellow at Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center, explains why Governor Newsom  has widespread power to respond during a state of emergency such as a pandemic

Stephen M. Duvernay and Brandon V. Stracener, senior research fellows at the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law, write that while the governor legally has the power to force people to wear masks, people should wear them because it’s the right thing to do to save themselves, their families and fellow Californians

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, writes that AB 3070 is about addressing enduring, pervasive racial and ethnic inequities 

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy writes that India’s solution to the problem of the unbanked — requiring existing banks to offer free, quality accounts in underserved areas — can be replicated here at home

Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, testifies before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Coronavirus pandemic and Federal Courts

Adam Sterling, Executive Director, Berkeley Center for Law and Business, discusses the Startup@BerkeleyLaw program, which helps startup founders and their teams understand the legal, finance and operational challenges they may face

Professor Catherine Fisk looks at the history of police unions and examines steps police departments can take make reforms

Professor Kinch Hoekstra appears on the “Ideas” podcast to talk about on the politics of an ancient epidemic – the plague of Athens

Ethan Elkind, Director of the Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, explains how rooftop solar panels can improve resilience against natural disasters

Professor Jeffrey Selbin, director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic, discusses the impact juvenile fees have on families and communities

Professor Catherine Crump, Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, along with Ken White, writes that the Federal Bureau of Prisons should end its unjust policy of requiring inmates to “voluntarily” waive privilege in emails they send to their attorneys through the bureau-provided email system

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg writes about her father’s COVID-19 diagnosis

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, discusses a the new report she co-authored that found California prosecutors disproportionately strike people of color, especially African-Americans, from serving on juries

Professor Catherine Fisk discusses the ways police unions and cities can work together to make meaningful reform

Shanin Specter explains why the COVID-19 liability waivers the Trump campaign forces rally attendees to sign are not enforceable

Professor Eric Stover, Faculty Director of the Human Rights Center, in an in-depth interview about the Tulsa Massacre, through the lens of history and human rights

Lecturer Carrie Rosenbaum, with Ediberto Roman and Geoffrey Hoffman, explains why the Supreme Court DACA decision is far from a permanent victory for Dreamers

Lecturer Mallika Kaur, as part of her ongoing series exploring managing trauma and the demands of lawyering, interviews Dylan Nicole de Kervor of the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice

Professor Rebecca Wexler argues that the courts’ interpretation of the Stored Communications Act has created a category of privileged communication without congressional approval or instruction

Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, writes that judges have an express mandate to act in ways “that promote public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary”

Professor Sonia Katyal, co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. with UCLA Professor Angela R. Riley, writes brands can no longer stand apart from social movements and activism and must stop using racial stereotypes to sell products

Shanin Specter says the best advice for business owners who want to protect employees and themselves during the pandemic is simple: follow the rules 

Mario Alvarado Cifuentes, Pro Bono Administrator, says DACA helped him, but it was never meant to be a full solution

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the Supreme Court’s DACA decision shows we still have an independent judiciary

Professor Rebecca Goldstein’s striking finding in a working paper that “age is a more powerful predictor of police-related policy preferences than race” is cited in an Op-Ed.

Professor Elisabeth Semel, Director of the Death Penalty Clinic, discusses a the new report she co-authored that found California prosecutors disproportionately strike people of color, especially African-Americans, from serving on juries

A new study from the Death Penalty Clinic found that prosecutors often routinely strike Black and Latino prospective jurors and that appellate courts have failed to rein in the practice

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the Supreme Court decision on LGBTQ rights is a huge advance, both for civil rights and for the triumph for the rule of law

Professor Franklin Zimring discusses the history of police violence, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd

Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, comments on judges speaking out about the judiciary’s role in perpetuating injustices and pledging to root out racial bias

Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr on Friday filed a brief supporting a new trial for Toforest Johnson, who is represented by Ty Alper, Associate Director of Death Penalty Clinic

Federal judges express concerns about the impact remote judicial proceedings have had on the legal profession during a virtual panel discussion titled “The Changing Landscape and the Opportunities It Presents” jointly hosted by the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, the Berkeley Judicial Institute, the nonprofit ChIPs and the Federal Circuit Bar Association

Professor Jonathan Simon cautions against police using social media to investigate crimes that may occur during protests

Professor Catherine Fisk discusses occupational safety and health as Amazon faces litigation over alleged unsafe work conditions

Professor Khiara Bridges explains how COVID-19 and George Floyd’s murder reveal black people’s vulnerability and marginalization

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that major reforms in our criminal justice system are needed and hopes the national protests about police racism and police violence will lead to reforms that really will make a difference

Professor John A. Powell, Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute, discusses the nationwide uprisings over the police killings of Black men and women and how the COVID pandemic is disproportionately impacting Black communities

Professor Frank Partnoy warns another financial crisis, hastened by the pandemic, could be on the horizon

Professor Laurel Fletcher, Director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, discusses East Bay Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s (D-Oakland) call for the creation of a “Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Commission”

Amelia Miazad, founding Director and Senior Research Fellow of the Business in Society Institute, and Professor Stavros Gadinis suggest corporate leaders welcome input from employees and consumers, but also local communities, NGOs, academic experts, government authorities and regulators, as they navigate their business thru the pandemic

Professor Ian Haney Lopez asks if President Trump can replicate President Nixon’s success in posturing against protesters

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that the President and the Supreme Court have gutted the legal tools for fighting police abuse, but it does not have to be this way

Claudia Polsky, founding Director of the Environmental Law Clinic, discusses the successful lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and the ELC, to force the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to update its plans for responding to offshore oil spills

Ted Mermin, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, comments on the complexities surrounding calls for Governor Newsom to alleviate consumer debt during the pandemic

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky reflects on his personal experience with the Rodney King riots and his feelings about the current crisis

Claudia Polsky, founding Director of the Environmental Law Clinic, discusses the successful lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and the ELC, to force the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to update its plans for responding to offshore oil spills

Savala Trepczynski, Executive Director of the Henderson Center for Social Justice, comments on “white silence” on social media

Dr. Rohini Haar, Human Rights Center Research Fellow, explains why tear gassing should be a weapon of absolute last resort

Catherine Crump, director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, explains that while police have a right to monitor protest activity, a line must be drawn when that surveillance becomes oppressive

Dr. Rohini Haar, Human Rights Center Research Fellow, explains what to do if you are exposed to tear gas 

Professor Orin Kerr discusses The Legal Academy, his new weekly YouTube series that looks behind the curtain of law schools and their faculties

John A. Powell, Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute, looks at the murder or George Floyd and calls on us to keep the struggle for love and humanity alive 

Professor Ian Haney Lopez discusses the murder of George Floyd, the protests that have followed it and the need for systematic change

Ethan Elkind, Director, Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, discusses options lawmakers have that would draw down and eventually phase out fossil fuel production in California

Savala Trepczynski, Executive Director of the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, writes that “black and brown people have been protesting for centuries. It’s white people who are responsible for what happens next.”

Professor Rebecca Wexler weighs in on the trade-secret and intellectual property issues related to algorithms currently in use to solve crimes

Erik Stallman, associate director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, explains why the President’s executive order aiming to limit protections for social media companies asks the Federal Communications Commission to promulgate rules that the FCC itself has said it has no authority to issue

Professor Robert Merges weighs in on trade between China and the U.S., during a virtual event hosted by the Berkeley Center For Law and Technology as a part of its China Law Trade and IP Certificate Series

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes that President Trump’s effort to open religious institutions for worship services has no basis in law 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky suggests the Supreme Court should continue to utilize technology after the pandemic 

Visiting professor Peter H. Schuck explains why the President’s comments about the death of a congressional staffer in 2001 may constitute intentional torts for which a civil jury could award punitive damages against him

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy calls for debt-relief legislation that would allow consumers to defer payment and an opportunity to refinance missed payments

Professor Ian Haney Lopez discusses his new book Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America

Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, explains why the courts are in a unique position to expand electronic access, as part of a webinar on accessing the courts in a post-pandemic world.

Jim Dempsey, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, explores whether the China-U.S. supply chains, previously driven by trade war-induced uncertainties, increasingly may be cast in terms of cybersecurity and national security imperatives

Ethan Elkind, Director, Climate Program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, explains why regulatory retreat over automobile fuel efficiency undermines both climate progress and U.S. competitiveness

Shanin Specter suggests the legal community consider new and creative approaches

Professor Khiara Bridges explains how racism and racial bias impeded important public health measures that impacted the spread of Covid-19

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky expresses concerns about the actions of Attorney General William Barr

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky weighs in on the extraordinary circumstances of the Michael Flynn case

Professor Chris Hoofnagle explains why Facebook’s new lobbying strategy raises flags

Professor Catherine Fisk weighs in on the struggles employees face as they weigh their protections under law against the pressure to return to work, as Tesla reopens their factories

Professor Catherine Crump, Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, along with Ken White, calls for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to stop forcing inmates to “voluntarily” waive all claims to confidentiality in emails they send their lawyers through the BOP-provided email system

Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon, in his recurring Deal Professor column in DealBook, considers what went wrong in one of the highest-profile lawsuits over a busted deal — so far — during the pandemic

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky asks whether the Supreme Court will uphold the rule of law when it comes to the Trump presidency

Professor Catherine Crump, Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, explains why government requests for Google data should raise major privacy concerns

Professor Catherine Fisk looks at Tesla’s reopening and predicts the same factors that led to massive unionization in the 1930s could result in 21st century versions of unions.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky appeared on KPFA’s Upfront to discuss the SCOTUS cases relating to President Trump’s taxes and financial dealings.

Professor Jeffrey Selbin, Director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic, with Jessica Feierman, explains why now is the time to impose an immediate moratorium on all juvenile fees and fines

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why California is likely to prevail against shutdown related lawsuits 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky asks if the Supreme Court can overcome the political polarization as they take up cases concerning presidential power and the rule of law.

Lecturer Rose Carmen Goldberg, with Dwight Stirling, calls for California to pass Senate Bill 1274 to empower service members to sue their assailants in civilian court

Professor Paul Schwartz examines the role for COVID-19 cellphone surveillance apps in contact tracing and the impact they might have on privacy and civil liberties.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky looks ahead to the fall semester with a focus on health and safety.

Lecturer Millika Kaur interviews Marin County public defender and Berkeley Law alum Jose Varela for the first in a new series exploring managing trauma and the demands of lawyering

Professor Prasad Krishnamurthy and EBCLC’s Miguel Soto explain how consumer debt can result in a court order to sell your home, even if you pay your mortgage.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky comments on SCOTUS and Federal Courts’ response to Covid-19 lawsuits that push back on state and local governments’ orders.

Professor Catherine Fisk looks at the outdated policies that make it difficult for independent contractors to receive unemployment assistance during the pandemic.  

Professor Catherine Crump, Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, discusses the technological and legal implications of the Ring device, and the significance of this new third-party surveillance.

Professor Catherine Fisk explores the complexities of employer liability during the pandemic

A look at CLEE’s new report on how policymakers can reduce and eventually phase out oil and gas production in California

Berkeley Law students, Bay Area attorneys, Silicon Valley philanthropists and community lenders partner to help small-business owners 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky reflects on the history of sex discrimination and why the ERA matters

Shanin Specter weighs in on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s call to make tort reform a condition for giving state and local governments aid for budgets depleted by COVID-19 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky discusses how Berkeley Law’s LLM program is adapting and reacting to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ted Mermin, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, advocates for a moratorium on debt collection during the Covid-19 pandemic

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky previews the upcoming month at SCOTUS 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why the law is not on the side of small business owners suing the government, arguing that closure orders for nonessential businesses are unconstitutional.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says House Republicans who blocked a rule change to allow proxy voting are needlessly putting their colleagues and their staffs in danger

Professor Emeritus Daniel Rubinfeld, with UPenn Professor Robert Inman, suggest using the 3 principles of federal policymaking, laid out by the Founding Fathers, to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky reacts to the California Bar’s decision to postpone the bar exam until September.

Professor Catherine Fisk, talks workers rights and breaks down how essential workers are faring during the pandemic.

Erik Stallman, associate director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, weighs in on the SCOTUS decision in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and David Carrillo, Executive Director of the California Constitution Center, explain States’ broad quarantine powers.

Joseph Lavitt explains why the issue of insurance coverage for businesses impacted by the coronavirus involves questions the courts have not yet addressed.

Professor Pamela Samuelson considers the implications of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Romag Fasteners, Inc. v. Fossil, Inc. and whether juries or only judges can decide about disgorgement of a trademark infringer’s profits in trademark cases.

Professor Orin Kerr weighs in on the issues with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as SCOTUS prepares to consider whether to rein in the sweeping anti-hacking law.

A look at CLEE’s report, Building A Sustainable Electric Vehicle Battery Supply Chain: Frequently Asked Questions.

Nine UC Berkeley faculty members from a wide range of disciplines have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), a 240-year-old organization honoring the country’s most accomplished artists, scholars, scientists and leaders.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, with UCLA Law Professor Jennifer M. Chacón, write that the President’s attempts to ban immigration during the Covid-19 crisis are unlawful.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why House Democrats have the authority to permit proxy voting.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky talks Congressional power and the ERA.

Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, explores how the courts have a chance to learn from the virtual ways they are doing their work during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Adam Sterling, Executive Director, Berkeley Center for Law and Business, talks the CARES Act with KQED’s Forum and explains how Berkeley Law students are working to help small businesses.

Professor Catherine Albiston examines inequality, paid family leave, and the new legislation during the Covid-19 crisis.

Ted Mermin, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, urges Governor Newsom to protect stimulus checks from debt collectors.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky examines whether the government can restrict individual liberties to stop the spread of COVID-19.

California Constitution Center Executive Director David Carrillo and fellow alum Matthew Stanford argue that Federalism is both the problem and the solution to the Covid-19 crisis.

Professor Aaron Edlin, with Dana Goldman, explains how California could use a system of virus alerts to help people get back to work

Professor Jeffrey Selbin, director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic, talks to The Marshall Project about the concerning history of escalating court fees and fines during recessions.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explains why President Trump is wrong to claim he has “absolute power” during the pandemic.