Carolyn Patty Blum Opposes Blanket Pardons

Washington Independent, Dec. 8, 2008 by Daphne Eviatar
http://washingtonindependent.com/21313/21313

Carolyn Patty Blum, emeritus professor at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law [and] a consultant to the International Center for Transitional Justice, which specializes in accountability for human-rights abuses, disagrees. “[Our] institutional experience working with truth commissions around the world is that the opposite happens. Once people feel they are already protected, they don’t have any incentive to come forward.”

John Yoo Says Election Was No Sweeping Mandate

Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 7, 2008 by John Yoo
http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all%2CpubID.29030/pub_detail.asp

Obama shouldn’t misinterpret his electoral victory as a sweeping mandate—perhaps President Bush’s overarching political mistake—or the introduction of a new political order. The president-elect would be better-served by moving swiftly to cure the recession and then focusing on moderate, bipartisan policies in areas such as education, spending and entitlement reform.

Richard Frank Notes Impact of Rare Legal Doctrines in Environmental Lawsuits

San Francisco Daily Journal, Dec. 3, 2008 by Fiona Smith
http://www.dailyjournal.com

This suit is markedly different because it invokes potentially powerful but rarely used legal doctrines such as the public trust doctrine and reasonable use, said Richard Frank…. “Various people have been advancing the notion that these legal doctrines have direct relevance to the environmental problems currently facing the delta. This lawsuit brings that theory front and center,” Frank said.

Christopher Edley and Daniel Farber Bemoan State Cuts to Education

Daily Californian, Dec. 3, 2008 by Stephanie Lee
http://www.dailycal.org/article/103778/top_uc_campus_officials_gather_to_discuss_budget_w

Looking beyond the UC system, Edley said he perceives public education throughout the state as “broken” overall. “The vast majority of students leave without having achieved a certificate, much less a degree,” he said.

Dan Farber, a professor at Boalt Hall School of Law, said that he left last night’s panel discussion impressed—but worried for the future of higher education in California. “It’s remarkable that the campus and UC have managed to maintain their quality while being starved to death,” he said