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Today’s jobs report and the Supreme Court’s McCutcheon debacle

Robert Reich, professor of public policy | April 4, 2014

What does the Supreme Court’s McCutcheon decision this week have to do with today’s jobs report, showing 192,000 new jobs for March? Connect the dots. More than five years after Wall Street’s near meltdown the number of full-time workers is still 4 million less than it was in December 2007, yet the working-age population of the … Continue reading »

Elections should be won on policy

Somerset Perry, Berkeley Law alumnus | March 4, 2013

On Wednesday (Feb. 27, 2013) the Supreme Court heard arguments in Shelby County v. Holder, a lawsuit brought by an Alabama county challenging the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act was originally passed in 1965 to protect minorities against the heinous discriminatory electoral practices that were the norm in … Continue reading »

U.S. Supreme Court to review the 1965 Voting Rights Act

john a. powell, director, Othering & Belonging Institute | February 26, 2013

The October, 2012 term of the United States Supreme Court promises to be one of the most momentous in American History.  Last fall, Court heard argument on the constitutionality of Affirmative Action in higher education in Fisher v. Texas (see my discussion of that case here). On Feb. 26, the Court will hear oral argument … Continue reading »

Corporate space and the Monsanto case

Stephen Menendian, assistant director, Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley | February 22, 2013

The Supreme Court is currently reviewing a lawsuit by the agri-business giant Monsanto against an Indiana farmer.  In Bowman v. Monsanto, 75-year old Vernon Hugh Bowman has petitioned the Supreme Court to review Monsanto’s lawsuit against him for purchasing and planting seeds that apparently contained Monsanto’s patent protected anti-herbicide genome in them.  Bowman purchased the … Continue reading »

The many faces of affirmative action

john a. powell, director, Othering & Belonging Institute | October 17, 2012

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week (Oct. 10, 2012) in the case of Fisher v. Texas, which deals with the undergraduate admissions policy at the University of Texas.  The policy, which some call “the Texas affirmative action plan,” is designed to promote diversity in the student body. However, it is not the … Continue reading »