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Are California’s Death Penalty Laws Applied in Racially Discriminatory Ways, Violating the State Constitution? 3Ls Niki ...
01/15/2025

Are California’s Death Penalty Laws Applied in Racially Discriminatory Ways, Violating the State Constitution?

3Ls Niki Kates and Robin Martinez in UC Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic played pivotal roles in an amicus brief for OSPD v. Bonta, recently filed with the California Supreme Court, which argues that California’s death penalty laws have been applied in a racially discriminatory manner violating the state constitution’s equal protection guarantee.

Kates and Martinez worked tirelessly on the brief, submitted on behalf of the Office of the State Public Defender (OSPD) and other petitioners by Professor Elisabeth Semel, the clinic’s co-director. Dean Erwin Chemerinsky is co-counsel on the brief, with Professors Khiara M. Bridges and Ian Haney López and other legal scholars as the amici (friends of the court).

“So much of Niki’s and Robin’s work was impressive,” Semel says of their research and writing. “But I especially recall several times during our many meetings pausing at a suggestion one or the other raised that struck me as exquisitely insightful.”

Read:

Death Penalty Clinic students help fuel an amicus brief for a California Supreme Court case on the issue.

01/14/2025

Part 1/3: Throwing it back to last year's Halloum Negotiation Competition where Berkeley Law & Haas School of Business - UC Berkeley minds joined forces! Nothing beats watching these cross-disciplinary teams discover their collaborative magic. Stay tuned for parts two and three, coming this week.

1Ls: Ready to experience the thrill of deal-making? Join the Spring Info Session this Wednesday at 1 PM to learn how you can compete in Halloum or the Bales Trial Competition – focused on criminal law, designed to introduce first-year students to the fundamentals of trial advocacy – this spring!

MSNBC: More than 100k Californians lost their home insurance in the last 5 years. Many of them now rely on "last resort"...
01/11/2025

MSNBC: More than 100k Californians lost their home insurance in the last 5 years. Many of them now rely on "last resort" policies. But the L.A. fires may push CA’s insurance industry to its breaking point. And the insurance crisis is “the canary in the coalmine” for climate change, according to CA’s former insurance commissioner, Dave Jones (Director of the Climate Risk Initiative at the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law).

More than 100k Californians lost their home insurance in the last 5 years. Many of them now rely on “last resort” policies. But the L.A. fires may push CA’s insurance industry to its breaking point. And the insurance crisis is “the canary in the coalmine” for climate change, according to C...

New Faculty Hires Alina Ball and Jason Ferguson Bring Fresh Perspectives to Clinical, JSP Programs
01/09/2025

New Faculty Hires Alina Ball and Jason Ferguson Bring Fresh Perspectives to Clinical, JSP Programs

Ball will lead the new Social Enterprise Clinic and Ferguson will teach and advise students in the law school’s Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program starting this fall.

01/09/2025

What does leadership look like at UC Berkeley Law? It’s vibrant, inclusive, and reimagined for a changing world.

Hear from 1Ls Viktor Dimas, Peter Clune, Rachel Rood-Ojalvo, Sophie Kupetz and 2Ls Kaela Allen, M.Ed and Hannah Pigg as they share their unique perspectives on leadership, what it means to them, and how they’re shaping the future.

Their voices reflect how UC Berkeley Law is redefining leadership by equipping students to lead with vision, compassion, and purpose.

About Berkeley Law Leads:

UC Berkeley Law is empowering the next generation of leaders through a dynamic initiative that integrates leadership training across research centers, clinics, practicums, executive education, field placements, the Pro Bono Program, journals, and student organizations.

Learn more about this transformative program and how it prepares students to excel in every area of law: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/article/transcript-fall-2024-magazine-features-berkeley-law-leadership-across-legal-terrain/

12/13/2024
Registration closes tomorrow! The Berkeley Law CA State Bar Registration closes tomorrow! The Berkeley Law CA State Bar ...
12/02/2024

Registration closes tomorrow! The Berkeley Law CA State Bar Registration closes tomorrow! The Berkeley Law CA State Bar Swearing-In Ceremony will be held on December 11, 2024. Register now: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/california-state-bar-swearing-in-ceremony-december-11-2024-tickets-881070845617

The Berkeley Law CA State Bar Swearing-In Ceremony will be held on December 11, 2024. Register now https://www.eventbrite.com/e/california-state-bar-swearing-in-ceremony-december-11-2024-tickets-881070845617

"At UC Berkeley School of Law, a group of students is tackling the distinct — and sometimes shared — legal issues that c...
11/11/2024

"At UC Berkeley School of Law, a group of students is tackling the distinct — and sometimes shared — legal issues that confront America's veterans. Through the Veterans Law Practicum & Seminar, they are preparing the next generation of advocates while making a meaningful impact on the lives of those who have served as the nation's defenders."

"Currently, students are working on several projects to advance the rights of Native American service members and veterans."

In this picture, from left: Ryan Pinch, Caity Lynch, Preston McGarvey, Professor Rose Carmen Goldberg, Andrew Johnson.

Read "UC Berkeley law students champion legal advocacy for veterans facing systemic barriers" in the Daily Journal: https://www.dailyjournal.com/articles/381827-uc-berkeley-law-students-champion-legal-advocacy-for-veterans-facing-systemic-barriers

10/25/2024

3L Maria Magdalena Watson reflects on her experience working with Berkeley Law’s Human Rights Clinic on the Anastasio Hernández Rojas case — the first known extrajudicial killing case that will be decided by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) involving U.S. law enforcement.

A satellite launched in August by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has close ties to Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Ener...
10/19/2024

A satellite launched in August by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has close ties to Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) from the project’s origin to groundbreaking methane emissions research for years to come.

How should colleges prepare for Middle East protests heading into the new school year? Opinion by Dean Chemerinsky in Th...
09/05/2024

How should colleges prepare for Middle East protests heading into the new school year? Opinion by Dean Chemerinsky in
The Sacramento Bee today.

“Campus officials must learn from the experiences of last year and adopt clear free speech policies at the beginning of the year.”

By any objective measure, Omar Gómez Trejo did his job meticulously. Five years after Mexico’s government dubiously blam...
07/26/2024

By any objective measure, Omar Gómez Trejo did his job meticulously. Five years after Mexico’s government dubiously blamed a local gang for the disappearance of 43 student teachers during a 2014 protest, Trejo — named special prosecutor of the high-profile Ayotzinapa case in 2019 — and his team began diligently examining all angles.

Over three years, his investigation unearthed bombshells that continue to ignite outrage: The government planted evidence, hid evidence, forced confessions, and disrupted investigation efforts. Trejo secured indictments of more than 100 federal, state, and local authorities, people in Mexico’s armed forces and intelligence agency, and organized crime members for their roles in the disappearance or subsequent cover-up.

But when Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office persuaded a judge to vacate 21 recently granted arrest warrants — 16 of them for military officials — the die was cast. Trejo saw the independence and autonomy he received as special prosecutor increasingly undermined by political decisions, and he resigned in September 2022. Soon after, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador began publicly accusing him of trying to spark an army rebellion for having indicted those military officials.

“During his time in office, the President has attacked many journalists, human rights defenders, and even recently the families of the missing students,” Trejo says. “Sending messages of disqualification from the most listened-to official platform creates a stigma, and I believe it put me and my family at risk. That’s why I decided to leave Mexico.”

Once in the United States, he received a scholarship from an initiative called Practitioners At Risk. In March, he joined Berkeley Law’s Human Rights Center through a program that helps bring at-risk international scholars to the Bay Area. Support from UC Berkeley, individuals, and foundations have enabled the center to welcome four such scholars over the last four years as they transition to their new lives in America.

“We are so lucky to have Omar join our team as a visiting scholar,” says Human Rights Center Executive Director Betsy Popken. “We are proud to support his research, writing, and speaking on the issue of impunity in Mexico — not only to share what he learned from his time investigating the Ayotzinapa case, but also to help him shape what more can be done to stop impunity for such crimes in Mexico.”

Read "A Safe Harbor: Omar Gómez Trejo Finds Welcoming New Home at Berkeley’s Human Rights Center" https://www.law.berkeley.edu/article/omar-gomez-trejo-finds-safe-harbor-at-berkeley-human-rights-center/

Photo Credit: Philip Pacheco

"There is no legal problem with Vice President Kamala Harris being the Democratic nominee for president. Simply put, no ...
07/23/2024

"There is no legal problem with Vice President Kamala Harris being the Democratic nominee for president. Simply put, no candidate has been officially chosen and the party can choose who it wishes to run for president in November at its national convention in Chicago beginning on Aug. 19. That candidate then will appear on the ballot in all 50 states."

Opinion by Dean Erwin Chemerinsky for the San Francisco Chronicle:

There might be lawsuits challenging Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. But they are without legal foundation and should be dismissed by the courts.

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Official page for UC Berkeley School of Law alumni, current and prospective students, faculty, friends, and the world at large to connect and keep up with the latest news from Berkeley Law, Boalt Hall. Follow us on Twitter @BerkeleyLaw and Instagram @BerkeleyLaw.