Goodwin Liu Reflects on Justice Souter’s Legacy

-McClatchy Newspapers, May 1, 2009 by Michael Doyle
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/67357.html

“He’s a very honest judge, who candidly looks at every case, and comes to a conclusion irrespective of the president who appointed him,” said Goodwin Liu, a former Supreme Court clerk who now teaches at the University of California’s Berkeley Law School.

-McClatchy Newspapers, May 1, 2009 by Michael Doyle and Marissa Taylor
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/67374.html

“Justice Souter’s political legacy is that Republicans felt he betrayed the conservative cause,” noted Goodwin Liu, a former Supreme Court clerk, who now teaches at the University of California’s Berkeley Law School.

Amy Kapczynski Led Student Effort to Get Life-Saving Medicines to Developing World

BU Today.edu, April 30, 2009 by Chris Berdik
http://www.bu.edu/today/world/2009/04/28/urging-global-access-medical-breakthroughs

First-year Yale law student Amy Kapczynski, now an assistant professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, took up the cause and used the media (first the student newspaper, then the New York Times) to pressure Yale and Bristol-Myers to allow generic production of Zerit in South Africa, where the HIV infection rate was about 25 percent.

Eric Stover Calls for Independent Commission to Investigate Detainee Abuse

NiemanWatchdog.org, April 22, 2009 by Dan Froomkin
http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&backgroundid=341

Stover sees the overarching goal of such a commission as being “to find out what should be our national security response to a dangerous enemy that fights in unconventional ways.” But what that requires, he says, is a meticulous examination of what we’ve done so far, the rationales, and the results.

Jason Schultz Raises Constitutional Issues in Kinks.com Case

SFGate.com, April 30, 2009 by Violet Blue
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/04/30/violetblue0430.DTL&type=printable

“This case touches on an important intersection between free speech and our rights to equal protection under the law. While governments may not be required to fund any and all speech, once they promise general benefits such as job training to particular groups or individuals, the decision then to take those benefits away because of the nature of a recipient’s speech raises some serious constitutional concerns. Just as whistle blower laws prohibit firing employees who speak out against unlawful violations by their employers, we must be careful not to allow governments to punish people because they disagree with their message.”

Christopher Edley and Stephen Rosenbaum Discuss Academic Freedom, Professional Conduct

The Daily Californian, April 28, 2009 by Zach E.J. Williams
http://www.dailycal.org/printable.php?id=105468

“Given his long history of very good teaching and his prolific but controversial scholarshipֽ I can’t imagine dismissal unless and until there is a criminal conviction and direct appeals are exhaustedֽ” Edley said in an e-mail.

“Members of the UC academic community have an obligation to speak outֽ” Rosenbaum said. “Academic freedom and due process are principles that must be respectedֽ (but) they do not trump moral outrage.”

Erin Murphy Explains Limitations of Forensic Evidence in Huckaby Case

Contra Costa Times, April 24, 2009 by Marcus Wohlsen
http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_12216791?source=rss

“Internal trauma can be telling, especially in a girl this ageֽ because we can make the inference she has not had any recent sexual experience, at least not consensualֽ” said Erin Murphyֽ a criminal law professor at the University of Californiaֽ Berkeley School of Law. At the same timeֽ genital injuries in children can occur during normal childhood activities such as running and jumpingֽ Murphy said.

Carolyn Patty Blum Calls for Investigation of U.S. Policies that Led to Torture

The Washington Independent, April 23, 2009 by Daphne Eviatar
http://washingtonindependent.com/40163/pressure-mounts-for-enhanced-interrogation-prosecutions

“There’s still a lot we don’t know, about how this all took place, how this went up and down the chain of command,” said Blum. “Based on what we know now, it would indicate that the Department of Justice would be derelict in its duties to not follow the evidence where it might lead and initiate some sort of criminal investigation. Both of those who perpetrated it and those who ordered it — the relationship between the lawyers who were assisting part of a criminal conspiracy. Because that’s what we’re talking about here. A criminal conspiracy to violate the U.S. law against torture.”

Robert Cole and Eric Rakowski Discuss Tenets of Faculty Code of Conduct

The Daily Californian, April 22, 2009 by Alexandra Wilcox
http://www.dailycal.org/printable.php?id=105371

“These news stories underline what has long been the case—that the university has some obligations to conduct a thorough professional analysis on how its code of conduct applies to off-campus conduct by a faculty member at a professional schoolֽ” said Robert H. Cole.

Rakowski said pursuing disciplinary action for professors’ off-campus conduct is extremely rare. “It’s a real stretch,” he said. “It’s going to be a difficult question whether the faculty code of conduct applies to this, if the accusations are true.”