The Bay Area Considers the Unthinkable: Life Without BART—BART’s struggles amount to a “post-Covid keyboard economy story,” said Ethan Elkind, director of the climate program at
@ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social and an expert… www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/u... @heatherknightsf.bsky.social @nytimes.com
Dean Erwin Chemerinsky on "Abandoning the separation of powers in times of war," via @scotusblog.com www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/aban...
Steve Zieff ’78 and Elaine Leitner Fund ‘Premier’ Postgrad Public Interest Fellowship www.law.berkeley.edu/article/stev...
“What the Trump administration is doing in cutting off funds to universities is clearly illegal,” said Chemerinsky, who served as co-counsel on a case to restore some of @uofcalifornia.bsky.social’s research funding. “The response needs to be to go to court and challenge them.” Via @theatlantic.com
Steve Zieff ’78 and Elaine Leitner know it’s harder than ever to carve a path toward public interest law. So they want to smooth that road for Berkeley Law graduates. They have given $1 million to establish the Zieff-Leitner Public Interest Fellowship: https://bit.ly/47AETwI
Can the military cut a retired veteran's pension for political speech?
The Pentagon tried to punish Senator Mark Kelly for a video, but a federal judge blocked it, ruling his speech is unquestionably protected. Now, the appeals court will hear the case in May.
Watch my 60-second breakdown! ⬇️
Berkeley Law in the @newyorker.com: Article on C.F.P.B. recalls a @ucbconsumerlaw.bsky.social event "full of aspiring lawyers lured by free burritos" where Senior Fellows @srf1802.bsky.social & @saalevine.bsky.social discussed the "spectre of freewheeling fintech." www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Opinion by Dean Chemerinsky via @sfchronicle.com: Trump and Hegseth wage war on Anthropic — and should be soundly defeated in court www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...
In a new book, UC Berkeley legal scholar David B. Oppenheimer unearths the surprising history of diversity in Western thought. While high-level critics are trying to bury the idea, he says, research shows that diversity is good for society: https://bit.ly/4czdgrl #BerkeleyLaw
“But ‘color-blindness’ in a society with pervasive systematic racism is not a form of opposition to racism,” Oppenheimer writes. “It is simply racism-blindness.” news.berkeley.edu/2026/03/06/t... @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
"In many ways, the pioneering Center for the Study of Law and Society (CSLS) encapsulates Berkeley Law’s mindset: prioritizing civic engagement, collaborating across disciplines to maximize impact, and assessing how law operates on the ground."
(👋 @veenadubal.bsky.social!)
Must-read from @nytimes.com featuring @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social prof @claudia-polsky.bsky.social, "who has led a class-action lawsuit among University of California researchers that has restored, for now, at least a thousand grants worth about a billion dollars." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
"The idea is for students to think through and write down a potential roadmap for their career," says Professor Frank Partnoy on a new course that illuminates large firms’ structure and economics, practice areas, hiring process, and more: https://bit.ly/4sj5R4b #BerkeleyLaw
2025 annual report of the California Privacy Protection Agency has dropped. Lots going on in the Golden State regarding privacy. privacy.ca.gov/wp-content/u...
"The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling Friday invalidating President Donald Trump’s tariffs will have enormous legal and practical significance." — Opinion by Dean Chemerinsky via ABA Journal: https://bit.ly/4qSxsI9
Host @gwyneth.bsky.social is absolutely crushing tape for Berkeley Law Voices Carry! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...
Those in the Bay Area should catch our event on public corruption. A timely issue! (Video available later)
www.law.berkeley.edu/event/combat...
Legal experts at Berkeley Law Event: Engaged Public, Judicial Courage Vital to American Democracy: https://news.berkeley.edu/2026/02/20/berkeley-talks-judicial-courage/ #BerkeleyLaw
Protesting is a right—and so is your digital privacy. 🦋
Just because the police can take your cellphone if you get arrested mean they have an all-access pass to your life. ⚖️
The law draws a line in the sand at your data. #DigitalPrivacy #FirstAmendment #ProtestRights
🎧Berkeley Talks: When the pressure is high, who stands firm? A panel of legal experts discusses how American democracy relies on an engaged public and on judges willing to uphold the rule of law with integrity.
news.berkeley.edu/2026/02/20/b...
“If the guardrails of democracy are to hold with a president who believes, in the words of his Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, that he can do literally anything, the courts are an essential and perhaps the only check on the president.”
— Erwin Chemerinsky @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social via @latimes.com
What responsibilities do lawyers have when the rule of law is at risk? https://youtube.com/shorts/cjgTkE2pRow?si=AhCIMjQe6Rbq7kf3
#ItstheLaw #BerkeleyLaw
“What happened to the streetcars that used to be around Oakland and the East Bay?”
“It’s really a story of technology change,” says @ethanelkind.bsky.social, climate program director at @cleeberkeley.bsky.social www.kqed.org/news/1207376... via @kqednews.kqed.org @danbrekke.bsky.social #BayCurious
California needs to step up on clean trucks to counter federal rollbacks | #Opinion by @ethanelkind.bsky.social & Marie Grimm @cleeberkeley.bsky.social via @sacbee.com
"The clear conclusion from the court’s decision is that the No Secret Police Act would be constitutional if it applied to state law enforcement officers as well as to all others operating in the state." Dean Chemerinsky via @sacbee.com amp.sacbee.com/opinion/arti...
Dean Chemerinsky: "The California Supreme Court should end this fiasco by specifying that beginning July 2028, California will use the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam prepared by the National Conference of Bar Examiners."
www.dailyjournal.com/article/3897...
🚨🚨🚨
@ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social is hiring an empirical pre-doc.
We have a large group of quant-oriented legal scholars, and two other pre-docs currently working with us.
Apply to be the third!
aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05264
Check out ‘Voices Carry’: Professor Brian Galle (@bdgesq.bsky.social) on Taxing the Ultrarich, in California and at the Federal Level www.law.berkeley.edu/article/prof... Host @gwyneth.bsky.social #CABillionaireTax
Academic freedom is under threat from all sides today.. Where does the First Amendment enter in? Erwin Chemerinsky and I analyzed the issues in this event, with Erwin taking the lead.
youtu.be/eYp2xRNB8wo
Position description The UC Berkeley School of Law is searching for a researcher to work with faculty doing empirical legal research. Researchers will work for 1-2 years with multiple UC Berkeley Law faculty members. Work involves potentially the full scope of activities involved in quantitative empirical scholarship: creating and cleaning datasets, writing and executing code to generate results, creating tables and figures of results, writing and presenting research papers, and generally working to assist descriptive analysis as well as the study of the effects of law and policy. Applicants will receive mentoring from faculty within a tight-knit research community at UC Berkeley Law and will have access to a broad range of activities at UC Berkeley. This is a good opportunity for candidates interested in spending 1-2 years developing research skills in anticipation of attending law school and/or PhD programs in the social sciences. As such, in addition to providing research mentorship, faculty will help researchers to engage in additional education and training, such as auditing courses, attending research seminars, etc.
Key responsibilities include: Collect data through policy research and web scraping (typically in Python) Clean and manage large datasets Conduct statistical analyses of data using Stata, R, and/or Python Prepare literature reviews, background research, and other content for grant proposals and academic papers Draft project reports, research protocols, and other project documents
Basic qualifications (required at time of application) - Bachelor's degree (or equivalent international degree) or current enrollment in a bachelor's degree (or equivalent international degree) program - Additional qualifications (required at time of start) - Bachelor's degree or equivalent international degree. Preferred qualifications - Bachelor’s or master’s degree in economics, Finance, Political Science, Public Policy, Accounting, Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics or similar field requiring substantial quantitative coursework. Proficiency programming in more than one of Python, R, Stata, and SQL - Experience writing in Markdown and LaTeX - Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite (Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) - Prior experience as a research assistant or fellow in the fields of economics or political science is a plus.
Come work as an empirical researcher at Berkeley Law!
We are taking applications now, with a deadline of 11:59pm on March 1.
aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05264
