“Now more than ever we need the California Supreme Court”

The Recorder reports on Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s speech yesterday to The Lawyers’ Club of San Francisco Inn of Court, with the Supreme Court’s justices in attendance.  “My thesis for the afternoon,” Chemerinsky said, “is simply stated:  Now more than ever we need the California Supreme Court.  Now more than ever we need our state courts.  Now more than ever we need state constitutions so as to protect individual liberties to advance equality.”  Because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s current composition, in order “to see an expansion of rights and enhancement of equality,” he advocated making “predominantly new arguments and in different forums.”