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Berkeley Talks: Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky on defending DACA

November 22, 2019
By: Robert Reich

Read the transcript.

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 Erwin Chemerinksy (left) and attorney Ethan Dettmer
Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinksy (left) and attorney Ethan Dettmer of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher’s in San Francisco are currently defending DACA in the U.S. Supreme Court. (UC Berkeley photo by Rachel Deletto)

An important case of the current U.S. Supreme Court term is about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA — a program that some 700,000 undocumented people depend on for the right to work and protection from deportation — and whether or not it was properly ended by the Trump administration in 2017. The program has been kept in place since then by federal court injunctions. The Supreme Court heard argument in these cases on Nov. 12.

Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and attorney Ethan Dettmer of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher’s in San Francisco are key members of the litigation team that won one of the court injunctions, and are currently defending DACA in the Supreme Court. In this Nov. 18 talk, they discuss what it’s like litigating a case like this and the Supreme Court arguments that happened last week.

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