“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, director of the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at UC Berkley Law weights 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.
Jeremy Fogel, executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute and a former California federal judge weighs in on a push for legislation expanding the judiciary,
Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley, said he expected major new legal fights between Democratic-led states and the Trump administration that could reshape federal and state relations.
Claudia Polsky, director of the Environmental Law Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law, weighs in on findings of a study she co-authored on California limits on ‘forever chemicals’ saying “It suggests a tangible public health payoff from the state’s more stringent environmental regulations.”
Colleen Chien, a law professor at UC Berkeley, has been publishing legal data across California related to RJA and studying legal disparities. “What we’re seeing is that there’s what we already know, there’s a lot of racial disparity in our system, and it’s really pervasive — almost every single county, on every single charge,” she said. “It’s hard to believe that that could just be the product of things that don’t have to do with racism.”
“Rubio may have good reasons for moving into the Cabinet, but improving his prospects in four years is not one of them. Indeed, the Cabinet has long been a graveyard for presidential contenders.,” writes Joshua Spivak a senior research fellow at Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center.
Ethan Elkind, the director of the climate program at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment weighs in on what the incoming Trump administration might do if a series of environmental rules that are before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are approved saying “If Trump follows through with campaign promises to revoke these waivers after EPA approves them, California would likely sue over the federal administration’s action.”
Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law joins Forum to discuss what climate efforts may look like during a Trump Administration, and how California will respond.
“Practicum projects prioritize advocacy on behalf of marginalized veterans, including veterans of color, women veterans, and those experiencing homelessness, criminal legal system involvement, or mental health disabilities,” said Professor Rose Carmen Goldberg, who leads the practicum. “Projects vary over time, in response to the needs of the veteran community.”
“We do not have four years to not do things, let alone go backwards,” said Ken Alex, director at the Center for Law Energy and Environment at UC Berkeley. “We are in a very, very precarious moment.”
“Transportation is really where the Trump administration can do the most damage to California,” said Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program at UC Berkeley law school’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment. “This could make it hard for the state to meet climate goals.”
“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.”
Joshua Spivak, a senior research fellow at Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center discusses how Nebraska uses a district-based system, where the state’s three congressional districts each get to cast their own separate Electoral College votes and how it could swing the election.
“It becomes incredibly important to evaluate whether the law is actually doing what it’s supposed to be doing,” says Claudia Polsky, study co-author and director of the Environmental Law Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law, “which is reducing exposure to chemicals.”
