Berkeley Law faculty: The rule of law is under threat

Credit: Berkeley Law

As members of the Berkeley Law faculty, we are honored to teach and to study the principles of law and constitutional democracy. We are writing today in our individual capacities to express our concern about current threats to the rule of law and what they mean for our shared enterprise of the study and practice of law in a democratic legal system. We share this concern with our UC colleagues at UCLA Law School and at UC Davis School of Law, with our colleagues at Harvard Law School, and with law school deans around the country.

We come from a range of perspectives and disagree on many issues. Still, we are jointly resolute that our legal system must abide by the rule of law. This includes the equal treatment of all people, the observance of due process, the impartial administration of law, and the right to the peaceful expression of criticism and difference. 

Lawyers have special obligations to protect and uphold the rule of law. As the Model Rules of Professional Conduct provide: “A lawyer is … an officer of the legal system and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice.”

The rule of law is threatened when the government, for example:

Punishes or threatens lawyers or law firms based on their lawful and ethical representation of clients disfavored by the government; Threatens law firms and legal clinics for their lawyers’ pro bono work;  Threatens law firms, lawyers, or legal clinics on the basis of their prior, legal governmental service;  Uses threats to bargain for public acts of submission and aid for causes favored by the government;  Punishes or threatens to punish people for lawful speech on matters of public concern; Calls for the impeachment of judges in response to disagreements about judicial opinions; or, Ignores court orders and evades appropriate judicial oversight.

These threats contravene the commitments of the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments. They are exacerbated when government penalties are administered without due process.

Reasonable people may disagree about how to characterize particular incidents in the news, but we are all gravely worried that the rule of law is under severe threat. We strongly condemn efforts to undermine these basic legal norms.

Our academic community is enriched by our noncitizen students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty. We know that due to recent events, many noncitizens are afraid of being targeted or deported for their lawful speech. Many citizens are also increasingly apprehensive of the consequences of their own lawful speech and protest. The Constitution, including the First Amendment, was designed to encourage an atmosphere of discussion, dissent, and debate that is ‘robust, uninhibited, and wide-open.’ The present climate of fear is incompatible with our Constitutional system and with our academic mission.   

We know that many, in our community and beyond, share our concerns, and that many have more specific fears about themselves, their friends and families, their colleagues, and their careers. We remain committed to the rule of law, to our roles in teaching and upholding the precepts of a fair and impartial legal system, and to supporting and defending those who are targeted by threats or punishment for exercising their right to free expression or for their legal work.

Kathryn Abrams

Robin Allan

James Allison

Ty Alper

Abbye Atkinson

Alina Ball

Cheryl Dyer Berg

Eric Biber

Carolyn Patty Blum

Chesa Boudin

Khiara M. Bridges

Stephen Bundy

Richard M. Buxbaum

Stephanie Campos-Bui

Erwin Chemerinsky

Colleen Chien

Michelle Jerusalem Cole

Robert H. Cole

Catherine Crump

Holly Doremus

Pamela Erickson

Dan Farber

Sean Farhang

Malcolm Feeley

William H.D. Fernholz

Catherine Fisk

Laurel Fletcher

José Argueta Funes

Jonah B. Gelbach

Mark Gergen

Jonathan Glater

Sara Laubach Gur

TJ Grayson

David Singh Grewal

Ian Haney Lopez

David K. Hausman

Chris Hoofnagle

Kristen Holmquist

Henry Hecht

Patricia Plunkett Hurley

Sharon Jacobs

Sonia Katyal

K. Alexa Koenig

Prasad Krishnamurthy

Kerry S. Kumabe

Christopher Kutz

Samantha Lee

Katerina Linos

Kristin Luker

Jonathan Marshall

Peter Menell

Rob Merges

Ted Mermin

Saira Mohamed

Calvin Morrill

Deirdre K. Mulligan

David B. Oppenheimer

Rebecca Oyama

Angeli Patel

Gus Patel-Tupper

Dylan Penningroth

Richard Perry

Claudia Polsky

Eric Rakowski

Annie Reding

Diana Reddy

Russell Robinson

Arneta Rogers

Andrea Roth

Stephen Rosenbaum

Lindsay Sturges Saffouri

Pamela Samuelson

Harry N. Scheiber

Jeff Selbin

Lis Semel

Talha Syed

Paul Schwartz

Marjorie Shultz

Jonathan Simon

Sarah Song

Erik Stallman

Eric Stover

Linda Tam

Jennifer M. Urban

Molly Van Houweling

Jan Vetter

Leti Volpp

Chuck Weisselberg

Rebecca Wexler

Susan R. Whitman

Jessica Whytock

Margaret Wu

Emily R. Zhang