Jennifer Urban Warns of Smart Grid Privacy Risks

The New York Times, Bits Blog, March 15, 2010 by Steve Lohr
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/tracking-electric-use-could-allow-utilities-to-track-you-too/?ref=technology

“This technology is very promising, but we should try to manage privacy early, before there is a problem,” said Jennifer Urban, co-director of the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley. Her organization prepared the filing on behalf of the technology-and-privacy groups.

Jesse Choper Praises Nomination of Goodwin Liu to Court of Appeals

San Francisco Chronicle, March 14, 2010 by Bob Egelko
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/14/MN9K1C9QP9.DTL

Fellow law Professor Jesse Choper, chairman of the faculty committee that approved tenure for Liu in 2008, described him as a “moderate liberal” who respects others’ views and would put his own preferences aside on the bench. “He understands the proper role of an intermediate appellate court, applying the law as the Supreme Court gives it to you,” Choper said.

Alan Auerbach Lauds Janet Yellen’s Nomination to Federal Reserve

San Francisco Chronicle, March 13, 2010 by Carolyn Said and Tom Abate
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/13/MN5E1CF0A0.DTL&type=printable

“One of the concerns whenever an academic is appointed is, ‘Does this person know anything about how the world operates?'” said Alan Auerbach. “In Janet Yellen’s case, that’s not much of a concern given how involved she’s been in Washington over the years. It’s hard to imagine a better appointment.”

Christopher Edley and John Yoo Commend Goodwin Liu’s Nomination

Los Angeles Times, March 9, 2010 by Carol J. Williams
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-goodwin-liu9-2010mar09,0,1301596.story

“Given the electrically charged climate in Washington, any nominee can become a lightning rod,” said Christopher Edley Jr., dean of Berkeley’s law school. “On the merits, he should be noncontroversial. But the reality will be a roll of the dice.”

Yoo said of Liu’s nomination to the 9th Circuit that “he’s not someone a Republican president would pick, but for a Democratic nominee, he’s a very good choice.”

Barry Krisberg Opposes Cuts in Prison Rehab Programs

The Sacramento Bee, March 8, 2010 by Susan Ferriss
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/08/v-print/2590044/budget-cuts-slash-california-rehabilitation.html

“There are two logical outcomes to this,” said Krisberg, now a senior fellow at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. “One is prisons are going to become more violent,” he said, as fewer inmates engage in productive activities. “And the other,” he said, “is that there are going to be more costs associated with that and with people going back in.”

Stanley Lubman Explains Limits of Court Reform in China

The Wall Street Journal, China Real Time Report, March 8, 2010 by Stanley Lubman
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/03/08/stanley-lubman-uncertainty-in-chinas-legal-development-part-2-reforming-the-courts/?KEYWORDS=lubman

Many foreign and some Chinese observers agree that the Chinese court system is deficient, most obviously because judges lack independence and the courts are subject to numerous external influences….The future of Chinese law reform is highly uncertain, and the odds of meaningful reform in the near term are low.

Franklin Zimring Believes Sex-Offender Laws are Symbolic and Ineffective

-The New York Times, March 6, 2010 by Gerry Shih
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/us/07sfoffender.html

Franklin Zimring, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, said he believed that the law was never meant to be enforced. “It’s almost completely symbolic,” Professor Zimring said of the original ballot measure, Proposition 83. “As long as the decisive question is sentiments, you don’t have to ask any of the practical questions.”

-The Press-Enterprise, March 7, 2010 by Sarah Burge
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_W_offender08.4169fea.html

“There’s no way to create a zero-risk universe for this,” said Franklin Zimring, a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Law. “That’s not merely hard, that’s impossible.”

-Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2010 by Cathleen Decker
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-week14-2010mar14,0,5837387,print.story

Franklin Zimring, a UC Berkeley law professor who has studied the measures, said they have largely become “symbolic politics.” Few have bothered to question whether the measures actually promote public safety, he said, because of the stigma of defending sex offenders. “Nobody wants to be photographed in close embrace with sex offenders,” he said. “Unless something is very expensive, it’s not apt to get much political scrutiny.”

John Yoo Criticizes Political Attacks on Obama’s DOJ Appointees

-San Francisco Chronicle, March 5, 2010 by Debra J. Sanders
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/05/EDQ91CAT1C.DTL&type=printable

As former Bush attorney and current UC Berkeley law Professor John Yoo noted, “The president can and should put into place political appointees who agree with him. The Obama administration has placed detainee lawyers in important positions in the government because, clearly, the president agrees with the ACLU perspective on the war on terrorism.”

-The New York Times, March 9, 2010 by John Schwartz
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/us/politics/10lawyers.html

“What’s the big whoop?” he asked. “The Constitution makes the president the chief law enforcement officer. We had an election. President Obama has softer policies on terror than his predecessor.” He said, “He can and should put people into office who share his views.” Once the American people know who the policy makers are, he said, “they can decide whether they agree with him or not.”

Barry Krisberg Calls For Reform of Juvenile Justice System

CQ Researcher, March 5, 2010 by Thomas J. Billitteri
http://www.cqpress.com/product/Researcher-Online.html (requires registration; go to G:\Law School in the News\News Clips for article)

“We have to recognize that incarceration of youth per se is toxic, so we need to reduce incarceration of young people to the very small, dangerous few,” Krisberg says. “And we’ve got to recognize that if we lock up a lot of kids, it’s going to increase crime. Nothing could be more dramatic than California, where we moved our youth prison population from 10,000 inmates to 1,500 in a decade, and crime went down.”