David A. Carrillo received his doctorate from Berkeley Law before joining the faculty as a lecturer in residence and the founding executive director of the California Constitution Center in 2012. The center is devoted to developing scholarship concerning the California constitution and the California Supreme Court. Dr. Carrillo coauthored a casebook on California constitutional law, teaches courses on the California constitution and the California Supreme Court, publishes articles on those subjects, and is editor-in-chief of SCOCAblog.com and the California Legal History journal.
Before starting his academic career Dr. Carrillo was in active practice for 16 years, as a Deputy Attorney General with the California Department of Justice, as a Deputy City Attorney in San Francisco, as a Deputy District Attorney in Contra Costa County, and as a commercial litigation associate in private practice. A member of the California bar since 1995, Dr. Carrillo is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Northern, Southern, Central, and Eastern District Courts of California.
Education
B.A., UC Berkeley (1991)
J.D., Berkeley Law (1995)
LL.M., Berkeley Law (2007)
J.S.D., Berkeley Law (2011)
David A Carrillo is not teaching any Law courses in Spring 2026.
Courses During Other Semesters
| Semester | Course Num | Course Title |  Teaching Evaluations | Fall 2025 | 223.8 sec. 001 | California Constitutional Law | View Teaching Evaluation |
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‘Voices Carry’: California Constitution Center Leader David A. Carrillo Takes the Helm of California Legal History
Carrillo, who runs the nonpartisan academic research center devoted to studying the state’s constitution and Supreme Court, has just become editor-in-chief of the book-length annual scholarly volume published by the California Supreme Court Historical Society and joined the society’s board of directors.
Proposition 50 could disenfranchise Republican California voters. Will it survive a legal challenge?
David A. Carrillo, executive director of the California Constitution Center at Berkeley Law, said that if Proposition 50 passes, he expects a barrage of “see what sticks” lawsuits raising California constitutional claims. They stand little chance of success, he said. “Voters created the redistricting commission,” he said. “What the voters created they can change or abolish.”
Opinion: How an upcoming Supreme Court ruling could wipe out a Prop 50 victory
“Many states, including California, consider the race of voters in drawing their political maps,” write David Carrillo, executive director and Stephen M. Duvernay, a senior research fellow at Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center. “They do this to prevent minority votes from being dispersed and diluted, as Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act forbids. In Louisiana v. Callais, the high court will decide whether a state’s intentional consideration of race to create these majority-minority voting districts violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.”
California’s first openly gay Supreme Court justice to step down, giving Newsom another pick
“He’s had an epic career, holding nearly every possible judicial seat in California,” said David Carrillo, a UC Berkeley law professor and executive director of the law school’s California Constitution Center.
Opinion: ‘Gavinmander’: Tit-for-tat gerrymandering isn’t a shortcut to victory
“There is a way forward that doesn’t undermine either the will of the voters or sacrifice electoral integrity: play by the rules and win at the ballot box,” write the California Constitution Center’s executive director David A. Carrillo and senior research fellow Stephen M. Duvernay. “Tit-for-tat gerrymandering isn’t a shortcut to victory.”
Judge hears case on legality of National Guard’s deployment in LA
“I think it is fair to say this is the most significant modern example of a court taking a hard look at the factual justifications for the exercise of federal power in this area,” said David Carrillo, executive director of the California Constitution Center.
Berkeley Law scholars support Newsom’s suit over Trump’s National Guard authority
Scholars from the California Constitution Center at the UC Berkeley School of Law submitted an amicus curiae brief siding with Gov. Gavin Newsom in the lawsuit, Newsom v. Trump, regarding the federalization of the California National Guard.
Opinion: Lawyers All Rise: Use Your Power for Good
“Lawyers, this is our time,” write UC Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center executive director David A. Carrillo and senior research fellow Brandon V. Stracener.
Opinion: Enjoin some, enjoin all
“Concerns about single federal judges issuing nationwide injunctions are overstated as they are a necessary tool for ensuring judicial efficiency, protecting constitutional rights, and preventing conflicting rulings across multiple courts,” writes 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.
California Bar Leaders Puzzle Over Remedy for February Exam Mess
“The right thing to do here is concede error and make it right,” said David A. Carrillo, executive director of Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center. “Hedging, delaying, and minimizing will only prolong the problem and make it worse.”
Commentary: The Latest Bar Exam Fiasco Is an Opportunity to Restore Judicial Control
“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.
Breaking up is hard to do: California secession movement pushes forward on ballot question
David A. Carrillo, executive director of UC Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center weighs in on the legality of a state seceding.
‘I think it’s a massive waste’: Legal experts weigh in on Calexit’s feasibility
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.
Trump may be planning a sharp, extended conflict with California, experts say
UC Berkeley experts, including UC Berkeley Law’s David Carrillo and Ken Alex weigh in on potential conflicts between the Trump administration and California.
Commentary: President Biden Should Commute Death Sentences of All Federal Inmates
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.
Column: Circle the wagons, blue states
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.
California beat Trump in court his first term. It’s preparing new cases for his second
“Faced with near-total Republican control of the federal government, Sacramento may think the state does better by negotiating,” said David A. Carrillo, executive director of Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center. “That affects whether California’s strategy is to fight on all fronts, or to focus on leveraging its size and market power in making its own domestic and international agreements — call it soft secession.”
Commentary: Why Is California’s State Bar Pinching Pennies at the Public’s Expense?
“Protecting the public—not thrift—is the bar’s primary regulatory purpose, and its focus on cutting corners has arguably diluted the bar exam from the nation’s hardest to something that weakens public protection,” write Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center’s Executive Director David A. Carrillo and Senior Fellow Stephen M. Duvernay.
Uber, Lyft California Prop 22 Ruling Opens Door to Challenges
David A. Carrillo, executive director of Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center weighs in on California’s Prop 22 ruling.
If Californians vote to ban slavery this fall, will prisoners get a raise?
“The long-settled legal doctrine here depends on constitutional permission for forced labor as punishment for crime,” said David Carrillo, executive director of Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center. “Removing that support raises difficult questions that courts will need to rethink — without an established foundation to build on.”