Eric Stover and Laurel Fletcher Reveal Impact of Guantanamo, Call for Investigation

-Reuters, Nov. 12, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/us/13guantanamo.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin

“We cannot sweep this dark chapter in our nation’s history under the rug by simply closing the Guantánamo prison camp,” said one of the study’s authors, Eric Stover.

-KGO-AM, Nov. 12, 2008 by R.J. Peruman
http://www.kgoam810.com/Article.asp?id=981457&spid=15884#

“We interviewed 62 former detainees in 9 countries. On average those detainees had spent 3 years in Guantanamo,” said Eric Stover.

“We feel that the findings here warrant a full and complete investigation and are therefore calling for an independent, nonpartisan commission,” said Laurel Fletcher.

-National Journal, Nov. 12, 2008 by Amy Harder
http://lostintransition.nationaljournal.com/2008/11/human-rights.php

Establishing the commission right away would “create a very strong symbolic message to the American public and to our international community that the Obama administration is going to turn the page on this dark chapter and is willing to take a critical look at the last eight years about what went wrong and what went right,” Fletcher said.

Stover said the commission would include a wide range of experts on subjects such as constitutional and military law, public health and medicine. Who those experts should be, and how many of them should be selected, is for the Obama administration to decide, Stover said.

-Mother Jones, Nov. 12, 2008 by Bruce Falconer
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/11/barack-obama-guantanamo-bay-plans.html

“This is not a witch hunt,” said Laurel Fletcher…. “But it is a recommendation that will lead to a serious examination of both what’s gone right and what’s gone wrong, and how to make it better. We believe that Guantanamo cannot be swept under the rug.”

Richard Frank, Jesse Choper Note Significance of California Supreme Court Conference

The Recorder, Nov. 11, 2008 by Mike McKee
http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1202425925722

“A number of people here on the faculty of the law school got to thinking about the important institutional and leadership role of the California Supreme Court,” Frank said…. It’s an opportunity to move beyond individual cases and individual disputes and subject matters and take … a more holistic view of the institution … its role in the California judicial system and the American judicial system.”

UC-Berkeley School of Law professor Jesse Choper, who was among the professors who came up with the idea for the event, said the aim is to “shed some light, share some information [and] generate some ideas on what are considered to be five important areas of law that affect California and the country.”

Goodwin Liu Believes Acceptance of Gay Marriage Inevitable

Los Angeles Times, Nov. 10, 2008 by Goodwin Liu
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-liu10-2008nov10,0,4823332.story

“Each of the 18,000 same-sex couples and their families in California represents a potential catalyst for broader acceptance of gay marriage. The more familiar we become with gay spouses and their children—as our friends, neighbors and co-workers—the more gay marriage will become an unremarkable thread of our social fabric. Proposition 8 may then come to be viewed, in the long run, not as an enduring constitutional principle but as the will of a narrow and ultimately temporary majority.”

Kathleen Vanden Heuvel Compliments Architect’s Building Design

MarketWatch, WSJ.com, Nov. 10, 2008
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/UC-Berkeley-School-Law-Digs/story.aspx?guid=%7B44F0E4BB-CEFA-4CFB-94C5-21925E868555%7D

“We are excited about the new addition that Ratcliff has designed for us and also pleased with their creative renovations of our existing building,” said Kathleen Vanden Heuvel, Associate Dean for Capital Projects….”Our students and faculty are going to benefit greatly from having better equipped classrooms, more space for interaction and study, and well designed offices.”

Christopher Edley and Susan Gluss Discuss Law School Role in Obama Transition

The Daily Californian, Nov. 10, 2008 by Samantha Sondag
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=86F827D4-18FE-70B2-A81ABF7BB95B96F9

“For professional and personal reasons, I want to stay at Berkeley,” Edley stated in an e-mail. “I already served in the White House under Presidents Carter and Clinton, and this time would prefer lending a hand from a distance.”

“A number of law school scholars are being considered for those transition teams,” said Susan Gluss, spokeswoman for Boalt Hall.

Jacob Hacker Predicts Support for Health Care Reform under Obama

San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 9, 2008 by Victoria Colliver
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/09/BUIO13VJVF.DTL&type=printable

“Americans have a very strong moral commitment to universal coverage,” said Hacker, adding surveys consistently show Americans want everyone to have health coverage but are concerned about costs. “Once in place, as was the case with Medicare and Social Security, universal insurance will be as American as apple pie.”

Marjorie Shultz Argues for Improved Law School Admissions Tests

-The Recorder, Nov. 6, 2008 by Petra Pasternak
http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1202425831224

“We know that many times minority students in school don’t perform as well as whites if you look at it as a group, if you look at test taking and grades. But there don’t appear to be significant racial differences in performing in factors like problem-solving, negotiation or advocacy based on our sample data,” Shultz said. “Our test shows that, and earlier research in the employment field also supports that.”

-The Wall Street Journal Law Blog, Nov. 7, 2008 by Dan Slater
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/11/07/berkeley-calls-for-research-into-lsat-alternative-testing-for-empathy/

Shultz and Berkeley psychology prof Sheldon Zedeck have been studying alternatives to the LSAT. They recently published their findings in a 100-page report. They say the LSAT, with its focus on cognitive skills, does not measure for skills such as creativity, negotiation, problem-solving or stress management, but that they have found promising new and existing tests from the employment context that do.

Christopher Edley Believes Obama Will Encourage Civic Engagement

San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 6, 2008 by Tyche Hendricks, Matthai Kuruvila, and Leslie Fulbright
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/06/BAIV13USV3.DTL

Leadership is important, agreed Christopher Edley, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law and a member of Obama’s transition advisory board, but Obama’s instinct, as a former community organizer, is to encourage Americans not just to look to him to solve their problems but to look to themselves and their neighbors. “He wants the lesson to be that as individuals and communities, we have the power to create change and there are countless ways to do that, not just in Washington but in our local communities,” said Edley, who was Obama’s professor at Harvard Law School.