Joseph Lavitt  “¢ 25 May 2010 In recent years, legal scholars and practitioners alike have expressed major misgivings about the advice that the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) provided to former President George W. Bush following the attacks of September 11, 2001. On February 19, 2010, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John […]
Self-Represented Litigants in Family Law: The Response of California’s Courts
Bonnie Hough  “¢ 10 Feb 2010 Approximately two hundred thousand divorce petitions are filed annually in California. Seventy percent of those cases involve at least one self-represented litigant at the beginning of the case.[1] That figure increases to 80 percent by the time of judgment.[2]This is not simply a California issue. Utah, for example, […]
Remarks of Jeff Bleich at the First Annual Conference on the California Supreme Court
Hon. Jeff Bleich “¢Â 20 Jan 2010 I would like to thank UC Berkeley School of Law for inviting me here today. This is, of course, an opportunity that any person who has appeared before the California Supreme Court dreams about. It may be my only chance to address so many members of the Court […]
The Preventive Dilemma: A Reply to David Cole
Robert Chesney “¢ 20 Jan 2010 For many years David Cole has been grappling, both in the courtroom and in the pages of the law reviews, with the difficult task of maximizing civil liberties while adequately addressing concerns related to terrorism and other national security threats. By and large, he has played the role […]
The Elkins Task Force: Meeting the Challenges of Family Law in California’s Courts
Laurie Zelon “¢ 13 Jan 2010 In 2007, the California Supreme Court faced a difficult question: were procedures used in a family law court, intended to make the process easier for the litigants, in fact violating their rights to due process? Deciding that they were, the Court declared[t]hat a procedure is efficient and moves […]