The Roberts Court: From Bad to Worse

Please note: "The Roberts Court" is at capacity for in-person attendance. Wish to attend online only? Please register!

This course is a series of four discussions with Bay Area attorney Bill Sokol about how the current Supreme Court is creating — or warping — social, economic, and cultural policies affecting us all. We will first revisit our Consitution, and then examine three of the many key areas in which the Court is trying to drive us all back into prior centuries.

On the Docket:

• Week 1: Is the Constitution flawed? 
• Week 2: The Attack on Democracy
• Week 3: Reproductive Rights: Guest lecture by Cynthia Gorney, journalist and author of Articles of Faith
• Week 4: What Is to Be Done?: Guest lecture by Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berkeley School of Law, one of our nation’s foremost Constitutional scholars, and the author of 20 books, most recently “No Democracy Lasts Forever”

Faculty Bio

Bill Sokol is a Bay Area labor and employment lawyer, a lecturer at SF State University, a gubernatorial appointee to the CalSavers Retirement Investment Board, and was a talk show host on Pacifica Radio for 25 years. He holds a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law.

This is an In-Person, Livestreamed + Recorded Course

• Classes will meet in person at the Golden Bear Center, Suite 365, at 1995 University Ave., Berkeley
• Classes will stream live simultaneously, and be video recorded
• You must be a current OLLI @Berkeley member to register. Learn about membership, including our fee assistance program.

Schedule Highlights

• Course starts on Monday, Sept. 16, and ends on Monday, Oct. 7
• Classes meet for 4 weeks, 2 hours per session (1–3 PM)
• Videos will post on Fridays in Member Dashboards
• All course materials, including videos, will remain available to view and enjoy through Dec. 31

Member Praise for Bill Sokol

This class was GREAT! Bill Sokol really understood the topics his audience was interested in, he knew the BEST speakers to engage for each topic and he did a fabulous job of moderating the questions and engaging in relevant/smart conversation with the guest speakers.

I was a little cautious in taking this course as I thought it might be way above my head. Instead, everything was presented in a most intelligent, interesting, and understandable way.