Source Collect: California Law Review's Podcast

In response to school shootings executed by minors in America, prosecutors are pursuing charges—not just against the perpetrators, but—against the parents of these shooters, especially when their children have access to guns under their supervision. In this episode, Professor of Law Cynthia Godsoe and Assistant Professor of Law Shanta Trivedi discuss their recent piece, Parenting as a Crime, which...

Algorithms shape our modern world, determining everything from which ads we might see on Instagram to who is afforded access to credit. But what decisions go into the development of these algorithms? Professor Fanna Gamal, Assistant Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, noticed that developers often exclude race and racial proxy variables as an input when creating machine learning algorithms. Pr...

To explain to us how institutional academic freedoms implicate corporate rights—and how Harvard could have leveraged these corporate rights in its 2025 lawsuit over the Trump Administration’s funding freeze—Michael Banerjee, a graduate of Harvard Law School and a Ph. D. Candidate in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at UC Berkeley Law, joins us today to talk about his piece, “What Harvard’s Lawsuit...

After beginning his second term in office on January 20th, 2025, President Trump has launched an unprecedented assault on large private law firms in the US. Fondly referred to as "Big Law" by lawyers and law students alike, these law firms have adopted different strategies to respond to executive orders and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission actions. To break down how Big Law is grappling wit...

In this episode, we will discuss the duties that Americans owe—and perhaps over time have ceased to owe—the state. Once central to the American constitutional tradition, civic duties like shoveling snow, repairing roads and fighting overseas have faded from our conception of communal obligations. Yet as society evolves, so too do civic duties. To correct the narrative that civic duties are a fixed...

In 2023, the Supreme Court decided Mallory v. Norfolk, Southern Railway Company, which held that consent remains a method of establishing personal jurisdiction independent of the minimum contacts test, first introduced by International Shoe Company v. Washington. On the surface, this decision resolved ambiguities in personal jurisdiction doctrine. But, to explain to us how Mallory failed to consid...

Violence in the Administrative State by California Law Review

People usually think that all tax agencies do is ensure tax laws are followed. But for decades, the IRS has regularly facilitated immigration raids. These raids target employees even as the IRS investigates their employers’ potential tax violations. What can this state of affairs teach us about agency overreach? And what alternate paths could better align the IRS’s efforts with its mission? In thi...

Traffic courts resolve over half of the cases in the U.S. legal system. These cases are easy for some defendants to handle by paying a fine, but they can have devastating effects for those with fewer means. And despite the key role these courts play in funding state judicial branches and other state and local programs, they have not been comprehensively studied in decades. What’s going on in traff...

The U.S. carceral system disproportionately harms racial minorities and people living in poverty. Penal abolitionist frameworks have helpfully reframed the conversation to foreground those harmful social consequences. But how do those consequences affect our understanding of work, and particularly work that is both criminalized and undertaken in order to survive? In this episode, Indiana Universit...

Immigration adjudications regularly use information from the criminal legal system to justify a discretionary denial of relief or benefits, even when charges have been dismissed. This practice faces little scrutiny due to the assumption that adjudicators are merely importing facts already found by the criminal system. But what if this practice actually constitutes “hidden factfinding”? Sarah Vendz...

For more than a century, the United States has restricted Tribal governments’ powers over criminal law. It has diminished Tribal jurisdiction and imposed adversarial approaches on Tribal courts. But recently, some Tribal courts have begun to embrace Indigenous-based restorative justice models. UCLA School of Law Assistant Professor Lauren van Schilfgaarde discusses how these models are strengtheni...

Each year, Child Protective Services investigates over one million families. Every investigation includes a room-by-room search of the family home, as well as the threat of the state’s coercive authority to remove children from their families. CUNY School of Law Professor Tarek Z. Ismail discusses how these investigations have evaded traditional Fourth Amendment scrutiny. Author: Tarek Z. Ismail,...

Americans have long persevered in the face of the national welfare system’s inadequacies. But when a new challenge in the form of climate change emerges, how can the United States adapt its welfare programs to assist Americans? Author: Andrew Hammond, Professor of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law Host: Georgiana Soo (Volume 112 Podcast Editor) Technology Editors: Georgiana Soo (Volume...

Consumer law practitioners and scholars have long argued that credit scores perpetuate historical social discrimination along lines of race, class, and gender. But what happens when abusers weaponize this financial tool—and the structural inequities baked into it—and coerce debt from their partners? And what does a new California statute created to rectify such coercion actually do? Author: Michae...

“What does it mean to be a lawyer committed to justice when the law seemingly facilitates injustice? And how do you teach students to reckon with this question?” Author: Etienne C. Toussaint, Assistant Professor of Law, University of South Carolina School of Law Host: Kevin Kallet (Volume 112 Associate Editor) Technology Editors: Hiep Nguyen (Volume 111 Senior Technology Editor), Taylor Graham (Vo...

Although the Twenty Fourth Amendment has received little attention since its ratification, the Amendment may provide a basis for combatting unconstitutional voter reenfranchisement schemes that condition the right to vote on money payments to the government. Author: Elizabeth Heckmann, 2022 Graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law Host: Taylor Graham Technology Editors: Hi...

When employers commit wage violations against their low-wage employees, recovery of those funds through a lawsuit or the administrative process is difficult and time consuming. No matter the outcome of the litigation, the result is a transfer of wealth from the victims of wage theft to the perpetrators. But what if there was a to ensure employees were paid up front for their lost wages? Author: El...

In the United States, many recently decarcerated individuals struggle to find housing. The coronavirus pandemic forced a national conversation about this issue and highlighted how essential the right to housing is to prison abolition efforts. Author: Norrinda Brown Hayat, Associate Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School Host: Taylor Graham Technology Editors: Hiep Nguyen (Volume 111 Senior Technolog...

All first-year law students take contracts, where they learn about offer and acceptance and what makes a legally enforceable agreement. But what can contract theory tell us about police violence against black people in the United States? Author: Marissa Jackson Sow, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law Host: Taylor Graham Technology Editors: Hiep Nguyen (Volume 111 Seni...

Author: Hiep Nguyen is a third-year student at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law Host: Taylor Graham Technology Editors: Hiep Nguyen (Volume 111 Senior Technology Editor), Taylor Graham (Volume 111 Technology Editor), Benji Martinez (Volume 111 Technology Editor) Soundtrack: Composed and performed by Carter Jansen (Volume 110 Technology Editor)

Professor Khiara Bridges explores environmental injustice and disability-based abortion bans in the “dysgenic state,” where communities of color are exposed to environmental toxins that impair fetal health while being forced to give birth to health-impaired fetuses. Author: Khiara Bridges is a Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law Host: Taylor Graham Technology...

In her note, Isabel argues that “otherizing” climate change allows the state to ignore and evade their responsibility to address domestic impacts of climate change on poor, rural, and immigrant communities & communities of color. Author: Isabel Tahir is a J.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Host: Taylor Graham Technology Editors: Hiep Nguyen (Volume 111 Senior...

In “Opportunity Zones, 1031 Exchanges, and Universal Housing Vouchers,” Professor Brandon M. Weiss argues that eliminating the Opportunity Zone program and § 1031 exchanges could fund a significant expansion in the Housing Choice Voucher program. Author: Brandon M. Weiss is an Associate Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law. Host: Carter Jansen Technology Editors: NoahL...

In "Dosing Discrimination: Regulating PDMP Risk Scores," Professor Jennifer D. Oliva explores how risk scores from Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs can deter treatment for patients who are deemed to be at high risk of drug misuse, exacerbating discrimination against certain marginalized populations. Author: Jennifer D. Oliva is the Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development, Professo...