Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge who leads the Berkeley Judicial Institute in California, said Cannon made “two fairly significant mistakes” during jury selection in the June trial, but said it’s hard to gauge their consequences because the trial did not move forward.
It’s “nothing short of astounding” how attitudes toward the law have changed, largely because few realized at first how far it would reach, said Holly Doremus, a University of California, Berkeley law professor.
Assistant professor at Berkeley Law Diana Reddy said that allegations that fall outside legally protected categories could undermine Lizzo’s body-positive message and “could certainly encourage a settlement.”
Professor Orin Kerr writes about Fourth Amendment limits on the government’s power to order Internet providers to run off copies of people’s online accounts and save them for possible later government access.
“I applaud what the Department of Education is doing, but I think it’s going to be legally much harder to challenge legacy preferences,” said Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
Jonathan Simon, a professor of criminal justice at UC Berkeley’s law school, said incarcerating people over minor property crimes makes little sense. “Jail does real harm and makes it more likely the person will be arrested again,” Simon said.
“Streaming has given the studios one more way to exploit writers—and the writers are pushing back,” writes Catherine L. Fisk, faculty director of Berkeley Law’s Center for Law and Work.
“I think it’s going to lead to a great deal of litigation and will take a lot of time to clarify the standard,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berkeley Law.
David Nahmias, an attorney with the Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice at UC Berkeley School of Law discusses deceptive techniques businesses use to make it difficult for consumers to cancel subscriptions.
“As schools strive to have a diverse student body after the court’s decision, much can be learned from the experience of states where affirmative action already had been eliminated,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
“Due to the failure to substantially reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in the U.S. and globally, we are marching steadily to an uninsurable future,” writes Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment.
Highly technical benefits like tax credits have always been hard for any administration to tell the public about, according to Holly Doremus, an environmental regulation professor at the University of California Berkeley School of Law.
The University of California, Berkeley School of Law was the first to adopt a formal policy on the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom, but for now the school has decided not to specifically ban ChatGPT from the application process, said assistant dean of admissions Kristin Theis-Alvarez.
Kristin Theis-Alvarez, the assistant dean of admissions and financial aid at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, estimates that a third of the applicant pool discusses their race or ethnicity in narrative statements. “Almost always this is raised in relation to a broader discussion of points of intersection between their racial and ethnic identity, their lived experience, and their interest in law school or specific career goal,” said Kristin Theis-Alvarez.
“Traditional law enforcement approaches have largely failed to disrupt sideshows and so we are seeing a proliferation of new strategies to respond,” said Chesa Boudin, executive director of Berkeley Law’s Criminal Law & Justice Center.
“If city council members want to express their views — either in support for striking workers or in opposition — that is their constitutional right and part of the normal political process,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
Professor Pamela Samuelson discusses a study she conducted examining recent lawsuits initiated by artists and writers that highlight the controversial nature of generative AI.
“More and more, we’re hearing from students wanting to play a positive role in the future wellbeing of our planet, as the impacts of climate change increase all over the world,” says Daniel Farber, Faculty Director of the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at Berkeley.
Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law discusses what it would take to make cycling safer in California, and how can we improve the state’s biking infrastructure to encourage more riders?
Professor Andrea Roth discusses new evidence in the Menendez brothers’ case. “If the trials were held today and included Erik Menendez’s letter to Cano and Rosselló’s allegations against Jose Menendez, the second trial may have played out differently,” said Roth.
“There is a huge difference between the city, as an entity, taking the coercive action of not renewing a contract, and individual city officials expressing their views,” said Dean Erwin Chemerinksy.
Lecturer Spencer Pahlke discusses how advocacy skills transfer from law school to law practice to life; the forgotten lessons of mock trial that you should resurrect; and how learning, practicing, and teaching are part of a career-long cycle for the skilled advocate.
“The lawsuits raise some very interesting questions,” said UC Berkeley law school professor Pamela Samuelson. “The courts will take them really seriously, but it’s a little bit early to know how the court’s going to look at it.”
“Organizations that take on the public function of protecting at-risk children must be held publicly accountable when they don’t do their job,” said Shanin Specter with the Law Firm Kline & Specter.
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom made the right choice on Friday, July 7, in announcing that he would not continue to fight for parole for Leslie Van Houten,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “Since 2016, parole boards have recommended her release from custody five separate times. Each time, the governor — twice Jerry Brown and three times Newsom — overruled that decision.”
“The majority opinion stressed that race can’t be used as a factor in admissions decisions,” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky said. “I think that that would also lead to the conclusion it can’t be used in financial-aid decisions, either.”
“It’s vitally important to hold responsible the child welfare services agencies, and when they don’t do so, it’s important for there to be accountability through the court system on those failings,” said Shanin Specter with the Law Firm Kline & Specter.
“The Supreme Court should have ruled, like the lower courts, that the state has a compelling interest in stopping discrimination,” writes Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
“I read the America First message as their trying to pressure law schools to read the decision very broadly and to curtail efforts to pursue diversity in all areas,” said Dean Chemerinsky.
Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley’s law school and one of the country’s top constitutional scholars, said he thinks a constitutional convention is “very unlikely” but warned that it’s an untested and dangerous plan.
In an interview with Professor Khiara M. Bridges, she says “It really is hard to reconcile these decisions with one another in terms of an overarching theory of law.”
While the revelation cannot change the decision, “it’s something that should’ve come up in the litigation,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of Berkeley Law, “because then what the court should have done is say we have doubts about this, we can’t resolve it, we send it back to the federal district court.”
“There’s a desire in both professions to get at the truth and figure out what the evidence points to and that kind of thing, but I think journalists and judges go about it differently,” said Judge Jeremy Fogel, Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute.
“In striking down the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program, the Supreme Court ignored one of the most basic principles of law: When the text of a law is clear, it must be followed unless it is unconstitutional,” writes Dean Erwin Chemeninsky.
Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Sharon Inkelas, a distinguished professor of linguistics, associate vice provost for the faculty and special faculty to the chancellor on campus welfare at UC Berkeley, write about the attack on considerations of diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education.
“It is time for a powerful new approach that creates possibilities for students with perspectives and experiences across race and ethnicity; across socio economic status; across gender; and across rural and city centers alike,” write Berkeley Law Professor John Powell and Yasmin Cader, deputy legal director and the director of The Tone Center for Justice and Equality at the American Civil Liberties Union.
“The term will be most remembered for the decisions of the last couple of days that moved the law in a dramatically conservative direction,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California Berkeley Law School, referring to the affirmative action, web designer and student loans rulings.
