“With a Republican majority in both the Senate and the House, Democrats cannot convene hearings, bring matters for a vote or pass bills,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinksy. “But although they cannot pursue a legislative agenda of their own, they have the power to block at least some of President Donald Trump’s efforts.”
Laura Riley, director of the clinical program at UC Berkeley Law, shares her insights on disability act claims that are expected to arise in future cases related to the clearing of homeless encampments.
“The California Supreme Court’s limited oversight of the bar is a separation-of-powers violation, and the court should remedy that by taking direct control of the bar,” write David A. Carrillo and Stephen M. Duvernay of UC Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center.
“A lot of things are coming together right now,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley Law School. “We have an administration that is being very aggressive toward the media, and a media that is afraid. … And that’s frightening.”
“When employees have job rights, as most federal employees do, they cannot be summarily fired without cause.” Catherine Fisk of UC Berkeley’s Law School wrote KQED. “Most federal civilian employees are protected by civil service laws that require the government to have just cause and to follow fair procedure to terminate them. That is true even when the government seeks to lay off employees for reasons of cost.”
“It seems to me that the motivation for recommending reconsideration is more ideological than strategic,” said Professor Daniel Farber, faculty director Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. “Trying to overturn the science behind the climate finding is a fool’s errand.”
May a president fire anyone who works in the executive branch of government even when there is a statute limiting firing? Dean Erwin Chemerinsky weighs in.
The win is certainly rare and noteworthy by this court but “it’s not a bellwether,” for future death penalty cases, said Elisabeth Semel, a professor and co-director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California’s Berkeley School of Law.
“Throughout American history, presidents — Democrats and Republicans — adhered to court orders even when they disagreed with them,” said Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “If the president abandons this precedent and instead disobeys the courts, it would put the U.S. in completely uncharted territory. Then we really have a constitutional crisis unlike what we’ve seen before.”
“Replace the corporate income tax with non-voting shares that corporations would issue to the fund,” writes UC Berkeley Law Professor Mark P. Gergen and Stanford Law School Professor Joseph Bankman.
“Less than a month into Donald Trump’s second term, a case involving his extreme claims of presidential power has already made it to the Supreme Court,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “It raises a question of profound importance: Can the president fire anyone who works in the executive branch even when a law limits his power to do so?”
“Contrary to what the administration has been saying, there are actually very few non-citizens who have criminal convictions in the country, so the idea that there could be mass deportations of people convicted of crimes is pure nonsense,” said David Hausman, assistant professor at UC Berkeley School of Law. “That’s made up.”
Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Ilya Shapiro, senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute join AirTalk to share their perspectives on a number of the Trump executive orders.
“We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis right now,” said Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “There have been so many unconstitutional and illegal actions in the first 18 days of the Trump presidency. We never have seen anything like this.”
“There’s a vast ideological difference between those that [former Presidents] Obama or Biden put on the bench compared to who Trump put on the bench,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law and an expert on federal civil procedure. “No one should assume the 9th Circuit is a liberal court.”
“For most of American history, it was conservatives who championed states’ rights. Now, the conservative Trump administration is trying to trample the authority of state and local governments — in clear violation of the Constitution,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
Assistant Professor Elena Chachko provides analysis of President Trump’s executive orders imposing tariffs and eliminating the de minimus exception for products from China.
Professor Pamela Samuelson discusses arguments for/against California bill SB 1047, explains Governor Gavin Newsom’s veto, and considers whether government regulations are necessary to ensure safe development and deployment of AI.
If Congress and the executive branch does decide to prioritize eliminating Biden’s gas-fired water heater rule, it could bring the application of future EPCA standards into question, said Sharon Jacobs, an administrative and energy law professor of University of California Berkeley.
“Indeed, presidential interference with Congress’ budgeted spending violates a federal statute, the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “When a federal statute has been adopted that appropriates money, the president has no authority to refuse to spend it.”
Constitutional experts like David A. Carrillo, director of the California Constitution Center at UC Berkeley Law School, criticize secession as impossible and unconstitutional. “Even if this [ballot measure] passes, there’s virtually no way it can result in California leaving the union,” Carrillo said.
Professor Daniel Farber, faculty director of the Edley Center on Law & Democracy at UC Berkeley Law weighs in on how the Trump administration’s agenda and policy reversals will impact California.
“For decades, oil and gas companies have been allowed to mislead the public and profit from their products while sticking others with the bill for climate change,” writes Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment. “That must end.”
Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes “when Trump acts unconstitutionally, the only plausible check will have to come from the courts. But will the judiciary, and especially the Supreme Court, enforce the Constitution against Donald Trump?”
Roxanna Altholz, director of the UC Berkeley School Law’s Human Rights Clinic, Medha Raman the Dale and James J. Pinto Fellow at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and Ricky Garza the Border Policy Counsel for Southern Border Communities Coalition argue that the Supreme Court case Barnes v. Felix is a long-overdue opportunity to address a systemic problem: the United States’ woefully inadequate standards for law enforcement use of deadly force.
Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, and former California Insurance Commissioner discusses the devastating effects of the ongoing Los Angeles fires and their impacts on California’s home insurance market.
Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) joins Forum to discuss how the fires will impact the state’s insurance industry and the future of insurance in a climate change-charged world.
UC Berkeley experts, including UC Berkeley Law’s David Carrillo and Ken Alex weigh in on potential conflicts between the Trump administration and California.
“We are marching steadily towards an uninsurable future in this country,” says Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
“We’re marching toward a future where insurance is not going to be available or affordable,” said Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Law.
David A. Carrillo, executive director of the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law and Brandon V. Stracener a senior research fellow at the California Constitution Center, ask President Biden to commute the sentences of the 40 inmates currently on federal death row to life in prison without parole.
Ken Alex, director of Project Climate at UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment discusses what Project 2025 means for California’s climate goals and clean energy transition.
Professor Amanda Tyler and Jeremy Fogel, director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute at UC Berkeley Law School weigh in on proposed legislation to expand the federal judiciary.
Jeremy Fogel, executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute and a former California federal judge weighs in on the Supreme Court ethics debate.
Louise Bedsworth, executive director at the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment (CLEE) at Berkeley Law shares an update on the recent UN climate conference.
“Underlying this case is the question of who should decide,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “Should it be left to transgender youths, their parents and their doctors to decide the course of medical treatment? Or should it be for state legislatures to make this decision?”
David A. Carrillo, executive director of the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law and Brandon V. Stracener a senior research fellow at the California Constitution Center see the results of the recent election as a time for blue states to reinvigorate state constitutions and present a road map for action blue states can take.
