Tag Archives: Courts

In what ways is the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson historic? What impact will having a former criminal defense attorney on the Supreme Court have on future rulings or on dissents? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Danielle Holley-Walker is the Dean and Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law. She is the author of “A New Era for Desegregation” and “After Unitary Status: Examining Voluntary Integration Strategies for Southern School Districts.”
Abbe Smith is Director of the Criminal Defense and Prisoner Advocacy Clinic and Professor of Law at Georgetown University. She is the author of Guilty People and co-author of Beyond the Rodney King Story: An Investigation of Police Conduct In Minority Communities.
Olu Orange is the Director of the USC Dornsife Trial Advocacy Program and also the Director of the USC Dornsife Agents of Change: Civil Rights Advocacy Initiative. A practicing attorney, he has won several important cases, including B.B. (Burley) v. County of Los Angeles — a knee-on-neck police death case which established that police officers who intentionally cause harm cannot offset their own liability with their victims’ negligence. The case has been referred to “George Floyd without video.” And in 2018, A.G. v. County of Los Angeles which established that non-biological children have standing in California to sue for the wrongful death of persons who raise them as parents.

This program is produced by Maria Armoudian, Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Attacks on the Legitimacy and Independence of Courts in United States – January 23, 2022

January 22, 2022 host

The attacks on the legitimacy and independence of courts in the United States is increasing.

What are these attacks? Where are they coming from? And what might be the effect on justice in America? [ dur: 58mins. ]

This webinar was organized by UC Berkeley’s Civil Justice Research Initiative. It is part of the Berkeley Boosts program.

Alicia Bannon is the Managing Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. She is the co-author of the report State Supreme Court Diversity, Legislative Assault on the State Courts – December 21 Update, and The Power of State Courts in Securing Abortion Access: ‘It’s Time to Give Them Center Stage’.
James Brosnahan is Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He is Senior Trial Counsel at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco. He is the author of Defending Clients, Not Movements and a contributor to the book Trial Evidence in the Federal Courts: Problems and Solutions.
Erwin Chemerinsky is the Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. His many publications include, most recently, Presumed Guilty: How the Supreme Court Empowered the Police and Subverted Civil Rights, and The Religion Clauses: The Case for Separating Church and State (with Howard Gillman).
Denyse F. Clancy is a partner in the Oakland, CA law firm of Kazan, McClain, Satterley & Greenwood. She is a nationally recognized appellate and trial lawyer with prominent experience in asbestos and talc litigation and other toxic torts. She is the author of Fraud Claims Under Sections 11 and 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933: Should Pleading with Particularity be Required? and The Deductibility of the Costs of Aircraft Maintenance.

We would like to thank the University of California, Berkeley’s Civil Justice Research Initiative and Berkeley Law Executive Education for making this recording available.

This program is produced by Maria Armoudian, Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – How power of the Supreme Court fails institution of American democracy – December 19, 2021

December 18, 2021 host

The US Supreme Court faces a legitimacy crisis. The US faces a democracy deficit because of the power of the Court. How should the US address both concerns? Several proposals for reform of the Court have advocated change. Would these help to rebuild the Court’s image and legitimacy? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Christopher W Schmidt is Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States at Chicago-Kent School of Law. He is the author of The Sit-Ins: Protest and Legal Change in the Civil Rights Era and Civil Rights in America: A History .
Richard Pacelle Jr. is Professor and Department Head in Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is the co-author of Decision Making by the Modern Supreme Court and the author of The Supreme Court in a Separation of Powers System: The Nation’s Balance Wheel.
Eric J. Segall is Ashe Family Chair Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law. He is the author of the books Originalism as Faith and Supreme Myths: Why the Supreme Court is not a Court and its Justices are not Judges.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Roe v Wade is likely to be overturned by US Supreme Court – September 19, 2021

September 18, 2021 host

The Supreme Court signaled with their upholding of the Texas abortion law that Roe v Wade is likely to be overturned. What does this mean for the reproductive rights of women around the country, and in particular women of color and poorer women? Is it the end of women’s rights to reproductive choice established by Roe v Wade? We look at how are many women ensuring access to abortions in light of the closure of abortion clinics. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Rachel Rebouché is the Interim Dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law and the James E. Beasley Professor of Law. She is the co-author of “Eugenic Abortions” and the Problematic Popularity of the Reason-Based Ban, What the Public Gets Wrong About “Reason-Based” Abortion Bans, and The federal suit against Texas’s abortion law may fail. It’s still worthwhile.
Lina-Maria Murillo is Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa. She is the author of an upcoming manuscript Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.
Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at University of Texas, Austin. He holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy
Sanford Levinson is W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School. He is the author of many publications including Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It) and Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance and, with Cynthia Levinson, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws that Affect Us Today.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Impeachement of Donald Trump and President Biden’s immigration policy – February 14, 2021

February 13, 2021 host

What is the future of impeachment as a constitutional tool after the Second Trump Impeachment Trial? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 33mins. ]

Frank Bowman III is Floyd R. Gibson Missouri Endowed Professor of Law at the University of Missouri School of Law. He is an expert on the impeachment of the president and other federal officers. Bowman is the author of High Crimes and Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump. His writes the blog “Impeachable Offenses”.
Eric M. Freedman is a Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Rights at Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. He is the author of Habeas Corpus: Rethinking the Great Writ of Liberty and Making Habeas Work: A Legal History.

How will Biden change American immigration policy? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 25mins. ]

Joanne Lin is National Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs at Amnesty International, USA.
Hiroshi Motomura is a Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has authored many books including Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States and Immigration Outside the Law.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Supreme Court and 2020 US Elections -/- Role of Class and Identity in US Elections – November 1, 2020

November 1, 2020 host

We speak about the Supreme Court and the Presidency. Also, how has Donald Trump reshaped the Federal Judiciary and the Supreme Court and how does that shape the election? [ dur: 29mins. ]

Michele Bratcher Goodwin is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy. She is the author of Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood, Baby Markets: Money and the Politics of Creating Families and Black Markets: The Supply and Demand of Body Parts.
Tim Fadgan is Politics and Policy Lecturer at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of Do the best interests of the child end at the Nation’s shores: Immigration, state courts, and children in the United States.
Jennifer Frost is an Associate Professor for History at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is the author of An Interracial Movement of the Poor: Community Organizing and the New Left in the 1960s and Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism

We discuss how the role of class and identity politics in the midst of American politics are shaping elections. [ dur: 28mins. ]

Nancy Isenberg is Professor of American History at Louisiana State University. She is the co-author of The Problem of Democracy: The Presidents Adams Confront the Cult of Personality and author of the New York Times Bestseller White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America.
Tim Fadgan is Politics and Policy Lecturer at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of Do the best interests of the child end at the Nation’s shores: Immigration, state courts, and children in the United States.
Jennifer Frost is an Associate Professor for History at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is the author of An Interracial Movement of the Poor: Community Organizing and the New Left in the 1960s and Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Politics and policy implication after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg – Sept 27, 2020

September 26, 2020 host

The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and the Republican promise to replace her has profound implications for American politics and policy. In our first segment we examine the potential legal impacts on the Court’s decisions themselves. In our second segment, we explore the impact of this decision on public policy, on the checks and balances of the branches of American government, and the 2020 election. [ dur: 58mins. ]

First Panel: [ dur: 28mins. ]

Sanford Levinson is W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School. He is the author of many publications including Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It) and Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance and, with Cynthia Levinson, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws that Affect Us Today.

Erwin Chemerinsky is Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law and Dean at University of California Berkeley School of Law. His many publications include Closing the Courthouse Doors: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable and We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century.

Second Panel: [ dur: 28mins. ]

John Vile is Dean and Professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee University. He is the author of Essential Supreme Court Decisions: Summaries of Leading Cases in U.S. Constitutional Law, 17th Edition, The United States Constitution: One Document, Many Choices and The Bible in American Law and Politics: A Reference Guide.

Mark Peterson is Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Legislating Together: The White House and Capital Hill from Eisenhower to Reagan and the editor of Healthy Markets? The New Competition in Medical Care and co-editor of the volume Institutions of American Democracy: The Executive Branch.

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – US Supreme court decisions and its effects on future of American Politics – July 19, 2020

July 18, 2020 host

What does the decisions made by the Supreme Court in 2020 mean for the future of American politics? What is the future of the Court? And how does this influence the relationship between the Supreme Court and the other branches of government? Doug Becker hosts. [ dur: 58mins. ]

Sanford Levinson is W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School. He is the author of many publications including Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It) and Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance.
Erwin Chemerinsky is Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law and Dean at University of California Berkeley School of Law. His many publications include Closing the Courthouse Doors: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable and We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century.
Alison Dundes Renteln is Professor of Political Science, Anthropology, Public Policy and Law at the University of Southern California. She is the co-author of Global Bioethics and Human Rights and Cultural Law: International, Comparative, and Indigenous.

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Civil Rights to US Corporation -/- Is Privatization a US Constitutional Coup – August 4, 2019

August 3, 2019 host

First, how did corporations get civil rights? The two-hundred-year battle to give corporations personhood and constitutional protections. [ dur: 34 mins. ]
For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Adam Winkler is Professor of Law at UCLA Law School. He is the author of Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms and We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights.

Then, how does privatization amount to what our guest calls a Constitutional Coup.[ dur: 23 mins. ]

Jon Michaels is a Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. He is the author of Constitutional Coup: Privatization’s Threat to the American Republic.

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Laws governing Misconduct by the Sitting President of The United States – September 2nd, 2018

September 1, 2018 host

In this hour, what types of criminal proceedings are possible for a US president? What types of secrets can they keep? Who can they fire and who can they pardon? We spend the hour with two constitutional law professors who untangle these and other legal issues. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

Heidi Kitrosser is Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. She is the author of the book, Reclaiming Accountability: Transparency, Executive Power, and the U.S. Constitution, and the articles, The Shadow of Executive Privilege, and Accountability in the Deep State.
Eric M. Freedman is a Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Rights at Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. He is the author of Making Habeas Work: A Legal History and the article, On Protecting Accountability

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Tag Archives: Courts

Scholars’ Circle – Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination for the US Supreme Court – March 27, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – Attacks on the Legitimacy and Independence of Courts in United States – January 23, 2022

Scholars’ Circle – How power of the Supreme Court fails institution of American democracy – December 19, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Roe v Wade is likely to be overturned by US Supreme Court – September 19, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Impeachement of Donald Trump and President Biden’s immigration policy – February 14, 2021

Scholars’ Circle – Supreme Court and 2020 US Elections -/- Role of Class and Identity in US Elections – November 1, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Politics and policy implication after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg – Sept 27, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – US Supreme court decisions and its effects on future of American Politics – July 19, 2020

Scholars’ Circle – Civil Rights to US Corporation -/- Is Privatization a US Constitutional Coup – August 4, 2019

Scholars’ Circle – Laws governing Misconduct by the Sitting President of The United States – September 2nd, 2018

By Maria Armoudian