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A longtime baseball enthusiast who once managed ticket operations for the Oakland A’s, Kahn relishes his shift from a successful tech law career to multiple roles with the Oakland Ballers. 

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky writes about the October 2023 term Supreme Court cases he regards as “sleeper cases” that will have lasting impact.

“No Supreme Court reform that has a chance of being adopted anytime soon is likely to make a difference in the court’s composition,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But the presidential election will, and the focus in the months ahead should be on the enormous difference between who Mr. Trump and Kamala Harris would appoint to the court.”

After receiving a Philip Frickey Fellowship, Hammond received funding to work on behalf of California’s largest tribe, which he calls “one of the greatest honors of my life.” 

Professor Dylan C. Penningroth joins hosts Leah Litman, Kate Shaw, and Melissa Murray for a conversation about his book Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights. 

Professor Daniel Farber weighs in on President Biden’s proposed Supreme Court reform.

“I strongly support 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices, but I believe that this would require a constitutional amendment, especially if applied to current justices,” said UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

David A. Carrillo, executive director of Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center weighs in on California’s Prop 22 ruling.

“Although Democratic primary voters and delegates may be wary of those with prosecutorial experience, such experience is likely helpful nationally for distancing Harris (and any former prosecutor she might choose as VP) from left wing criminal justice policy positions that are nationally unpopular,” said Professor Rebecca Goldstein. 

Catherine Crump, director of University of California, Berkeley’s Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic weighs in on the controversy surrounding the Olympics’ AI security.

Trejo had to flee Mexico after he secured indictments of government and military officials for their roles in the disappearance of 43 student teachers and subsequent cover-up.

“I am frequently asked about the most important thing to do in regard to changing the Supreme Court,” writes Dean Chemerinsky. “The answer is easy: win presidential elections.”

“This problem is so big that the federal government itself doesn’t even know the scope of the problem,” explained UC Berkeley Law Professor Rose Carmen Goldberg.

Leading constitutional scholar and UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky joins SpeechMatters to share both his insights on this Supreme Court term and his reflections on the tumultuous past year on campus.

“Under the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Place, the government needs ‘reasonable suspicion’ to briefly seize your bag at an airport without a warrant or consent to subject it to a drug-detection dog’s sniff,” said Professor Orin Kerr.

Professor Holly Doremus weighs in on the possible impact the Chevron decision will have on endangered species.

“I think that the wild card is if Elon turns Delaware into some kind of cause célèbre for a large set of retail shareholders, given his platform,” said assistant law professor Andrew Baker. “That could happen and become a reason people choose not to incorporate in Delaware,” he said. “But who knows?”

“The legal issues being raised by Republicans about a possible Harris nomination are just noise to generate confusion,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “They have no legal merit.”

Jessica Whytock, who has more than 20 years of experience, says she’s excited to continue innovating in a rapidly changing landscape.

Assistant Professor of Law Emily Rong Zhang weighs in on possible legal challenges to Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race.

“If we really think it’s in our interest as a society to be placing these people in state hospitals, that should be on the general fund, the taxpayers, to do that, not on people who are involuntarily being committed to these facilities,” said Professor Stephanie Campos-Bui.

Grayzel-Ward’s international human rights law career aspirations get a major boost with a valuable judicial externship at Austria’s Federal Administrative Court.

Catherine Fisk, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, said public support for unions is at its highest levels since the 1960s. Coupled with recent actions by the NLRB that boost union organizing, those positive attitudes about unions embolden workers to form them, whether on their own as thousands of Starbucks workers have since 2021 or by teaming up with established unions like Volkswagen employees in Tennessee who recently voted to join the United Auto Workers, she said.

“The language that Trump is using is designed to promote and answer a single question: Who threatens you?” Professor Ian Haney López said.

“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.”

“The language that Trump is using is designed to promote and answer a single question: Who threatens you?” Professor Ian Haney López said.

“DEI is the latest in a long line of dog whistles,” coded words and phrases with a set political message intended for members of certain group to understand, “meant to trigger resentments rooted in racism and sexism, but presented instead as defenses of high principle,” according to Ian Haney López, a UC Berkeley Law professor of public law and author of “Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class.”

Ted Lamm, a UC Berkeley Law researcher who studies electric car infrastructure, said the magnitude of building what California needs in coming years likely dwarfs the public funding available.

The retired Santa Clara County Superior Court judge has been a particularly stellar and extremely involved mentor in the program, which matches alums with incoming students over the summer before their 1L year.

“Judge Aileen Cannon’s stunning ruling dismissing the federal indictment against Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents is just wrong as a matter of constitutional law, but it can be easily overcome,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

Heat waves are more predictable than other natural disasters, however. That can make the coverage expensive, compared with just setting aside money to pay for the added costs, said Ted Lamm, associate director of the University of California Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. 

“Quite frankly, we probably need stricter program rules,” said Tejas Narechania, director of the UC Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and one of the project leads. “A lot of people got internet access, and that’s important. But there were lots and lots of problems that could have been, and still can be, solved through good, rigorous oversight and better program goals. And that’s an opportunity for policymakers.”

Professor Adam Badawi weighs in on Skydance Media’s acquisition of Paramount Global, and discusses what control an acquiring company can exert over the decisions made by the acquired company during the regulatory review process.

“Solving the problem of homelessness is difficult and expensive,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “But putting people in jail for sleeping in public does absolutely nothing to solve homelessness or help people in need.”

Much of the Biden administration’s executive order may remain unaffected, said Kenneth Bamberger, a UC Berkeley Law professor who has focused on AI regulatory issues. That’s because most of the order’s actions consist of non-binding efforts, like directing federal agencies to draft reports or establish guidelines that wouldn’t have fallen under Chevron. 

Each year the Berkeley Law clinic welcomes up to three UC Berkeley undergrads, who immerse themselves in weekly classes and environmental projects with law students.

It’s a school-record number of recipients in the highly competitive program, which welcomes recent law school graduates and newly admitted lawyers committed to a public service career.

Professor Colleen Chien discusses AI web crawlers on NPR’s All Things Considered.

Professor Elena Chachko weighs in on the Supreme Court’s recent administrative law cases.

Professor Jeffrey Selbin weighs in on the Supreme Court ruling on City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson

According to Supervising Attorney in the Environmental Law Clinic at Berkeley Law Steve Castleman, the 2021 retesting found “significant” amounts of contamination that exceeded the cleanup goal of Strontium-90, a radioactive isotope, which he alleges the Navy has since tried to invalidate. 

At times, some have referred to the Supreme Court as “nine scorpions in a bottle,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. That metaphor seems especially appropriate this year, though I would describe them as “nine angry scorpions in a bottle.”

The notion of America recruiting foreigners into its military under false promises isn’t new, said Rose Carmen Goldberg, Director of the Veterans Law Practicum at UC Berkeley School of Law. “This problem is so big that the federal government itself doesn’t even know the scope of the problem,” she explained.

“It’s a court driven by conservative ideology and politics, not precedent or constitutional doctrine,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, the UC Berkeley law school dean.

San Francisco-based Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice and the UC Berkeley Law Clinic filed the lawsuit Friday, calling for, among other demands, 100% of the land to be retested for radioactive contaminants. They claim the Navy was obligated to do so, but never did.

“I didn’t expect such a broad definition of absolute immunity for a president for criminal acts,” said Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, one of the nation’s preeminent constitutional scholars. “While the court leaves many issues unresolved, it is a dramatic and stunning affirmation of broad, absolute immunity for a president.” 

Berkeley Law’s Environmental Law Clinic. representing a local environmental justice group, filed a lawsuit against the EPA and the Navy over the troubled cleanup of radiological and other contamination at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky weighs in on the Supreme Court’s Trump vs. United States decision.

Tweet by Professor Orin Kerr quoted in Vanity Fair: “I don’t know if Trump is going to be reelected in 2024. But I know that, if he is, he’s going to preface every blatantly illegal thing he does by saying, ‘Official act, this is an official act.’”

“One of the many policies in California that would be ripe for a legal challenge, without the Chevron doctrine in play, is the state’s zero-emission vehicle and tailpipe standards,” said Ted Lamm, associate director at UC Berkeley School of Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment.