Assoc. Dean Amar Comments on Supreme Court Ruling for L.A. Times
Associate Dean Vikram Amar commented for the Los Angeles Times on the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that California must significantly reduce its prison population to reduce overcrowding. Times columnist George Skelton examines various options the state might pursue in response, including defying the Court, which Amar said would send California "down a terrible path."
"The executive branch of the federal government would have to back the judiciary. We have a supremacy clause [in the Constitution] that says federal law is supreme over any state law in conflict," Amar said. "Ever since the Civil War and the civil rights movement, the strong presumption has been that an executive may disagree with the Supreme Court, but all must come in line once the court has spoken."
Vikram Amar, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Law with the UC Davis School of Law, is a national authority in the fields of constitutional law, civil procedure, criminal procedure, and remedies. His biweekly column for FindLaw.com, a leading provider of online legal information, centers on his expertise in constitutional law.