King’s Easter epistle on civil disobedience

David Oppenheimer writes for Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2013

King had to decide whether to postpone the demonstration. He was expected to preside over Easter Sunday services in his own church, Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta. His lawyer warned him that if he marched, he would probably still be in jail Sunday. His father and some of his aides urged him to comply with the order and go home. “I don’t know where the money [for bail] will come from,” he explained to them, “but I have to make a faith act.” Andrew Young later described the moment as the “beginning of [King’s] true leadership.”

Insight: China’s losing battle against state-backed polluters

Alex Wang quoted by Reuters, March 31, 2013

“The problem tends to involve the capture of the government by various interests – these problems are exacerbated when the company actually is the government,” said Alex Wang, professor at Berkeley and an expert in China’s environmental legislation.

Suspect’s death puts reward in question

Mark Gergen quoted in The New York Times, March 29, 2013

Mark Gergen, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, said he did not know of any previous litigation in California over whether rewards should be paid if the suspect dies before conviction…. “Looking beneath the surface, in many of these cases there are qualms about whether the person claiming the reward really played an instrumental role,” he said.

Soda ban: 4 alternatives

Stephen Sugarman quoted in The Epoch Times, March 28, 2013

One way to decrease sugar consumption would be to ask chain restaurants and retailers such as Trader Joe’s to reduce sugar in the products they sell by a certain percentage every year, says Stephen Sugarman…. “You require them to reduce the amount of added sugar that passes through their cash registers, by, let’s say, five percent a year,” said Sugarman. “And you just let them figure out how to do that—as long as they meet the target then there’s no tax, no penalty. Any individual shopper can keep on buying whatever he or she wants, but the company, just as they seduce us into buying the type of diet we buy now, will have to seduce us into buying an increasingly less sugary diet.”

Govt firm in resolve to fight graft

Robert Berring quoted in China Daily, March 28 2013

“Economic reform is difficult. Taking on corruption even more so. The Party and the State must follow his (Li’s) words and seek social equity and balance,” said Robert Berring, a professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, who teaches courses on the Chinese legal system.

NYC homicide rate keeps dropping

Franklin Zimring quoted in Newsday, March 28, 2013

“The question is, Where is the bottom? How low can you go?” said professor Franklin Zimring, of University of California Berkeley School of Law, who has studied New York City crime trends.

Prop 8 in the Supreme Court

Joan Hollinger interviewed by KPFA-FM, Up Front, March 27, 2013

“The media overwhelmingly predicted that the healthcare act would be declared unconstitutional. That turned out, of course, to be incorrect primarily because Chief Justice Roberts, who acted during the oral argument as if he had no use for the healthcare act, ended up being the most significant vote on the court for maintaining the constitutionality of core provisions of the act. So, with that warning in mind about reading or misreading the clues from an oral argument, I would say that yesterday was somewhat baffling.”

Local experts weigh in on gay marriage hearings

Melissa Murray interviewed by Modern Luxury, San Francisco Magazine, March 27, 2013

“I’m a terrible prognosticator, but it seems obvious to me that same sex marriage is inevitable. It was from Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, when the Court struck down laws that prohibited sodomy. Once you say that this behavior is no longer suitable to be regulated by criminal law, it seems that marriage is inevitable. Historically, the state either regulates sex through criminal law or through family law.”

Another race case for a hostile Supreme Court

Ian Haney-Lopez quoted in ProPublica, March 26, 2013

“The court seems eager to weigh in on race,” said Ian Haney-Lopez, a constitutional scholar at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. “I think we are about to see an even more aggressive stance, not just against affirmative action but limiting anti-discrimination measures themselves.”