Media Highlights

The Trump administration “has really taken to heart the motto of ‘move fast and break things,’” says Daniel Farber, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley law school This has led to some losses in court, he adds, but “Even if they’re eventually told to stop what they’re doing, or to reverse what they’re doing, just the fact that they’ve done it has an impact.”

“If democracy is to survive, though, it must be because the illegal and unconstitutional acts of the Trump administration are stopped,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “That requires that those targeted fight back.”

Professor Elisabeth Semel, founding director of the UC Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic, said no matter what someone thinks of the death penalty, there remains no evidence that executions advance public safety.

Jeremy Fogel, a retired federal judge, said no judge in the nation’s history has been removed “because of dissatisfaction with his or her rulings.” But threats of impeachment “contribute to a toxic environment that increases the difficulty of an already difficult job,” said Fogel, who now leads the Berkeley Judicial Institute.

Here & Now‘s Scott Tong talks with Dean Erwin Chemerinsky about what would happen if President Trump defies the courts.

Delaney Green, clinical supervisor with the Policy Advocacy Clinic at UC Berkeley Law, said it’s unclear whether an increase in staffing is going to help survivors more readily access better resources. “By and large, accessing victim compensation is very, very difficult,” she said. “I’m hoping this is starting to signal some changes that are reprioritizing the needs of survivors.”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky joins LA Times Today host Lisa McRee to discuss expansion of presidential power.

Arbitration is commonly understood to favor employers over employees, but “an arbitrator cannot violate the law,” said Catherine Fisk of UC Berkeley’s Law School, where she teaches employment and labor law. 

“It’s absolutely the case that Ice enforcement appears to be becoming more indiscriminate,” said David Hausman, assistant professor at the University of California at Berkeley’s law school. “First, we know they’re trying to maximize the number of arrests each day, which means they can’t be as thoughtful about what they’re doing. And second, they explicitly have the goal of spreading fear among immigrants in the United States, and indiscriminate arrests accomplish that as well.”

“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.”

Professor Chris Hoofnagle, faculty director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology discusses UC Berkeley Law’s  comprehensive set of rules on AI use.

UC Berkeley professor of law and history, Dylan Penningroth in a conversation with American historian Heather Cox Richardson about the historical evolution of the Republican Party, and the state of U.S. politics and democracy today. 

“Hopefully, the pushback in the form of lawsuits like this will show that there are legal boundaries that should not be crossed,” said Laura Riley, director of the Clinical Program at Berkeley Law. “What exactly those are; we have to wait to see what the courts do. But I do think it shows that municipalities can’t criminalize homelessness in a way that’s unchecked.”

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.

“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.”

USDA targets California’s Proposition 12 as part of plan to fight bird flu outbreaks and lower egg prices, Dean Erwin Chemerinsky weighs in.

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.” 

“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 joins Education Now as a guest to explore how to balance free expression and open dialogue in higher education.

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.”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Professor John Yoo weigh in on whether or how much the Supreme Court might act to check Trump’s authority.

“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.”

Assistant Professor Elena Chachko provides analysis of President Trump’s executive orders imposing tariffs and eliminating the de minimus exception for products from China.

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.

David A. Carrillo, executive director of UC Berkeley Law’s California Constitution Center weighs in on the legality of a state seceding.

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.