Event Date
REGISTER HERE for Livestream | MCLE credits available | No registration fee
Moderated by King Hall Professor Christopher Elmendorf, this debate on the pros and cons of Proposition 45 will include a short tutorial covering what CEQA is, its history and evolution, and an overview of the ballot initiative.
Enacted in 1970, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires state and local government agencies to identify and reduce environmental harms from new projects—shaping how California builds, protects, and grows. Proposition 45 proposes major changes to this bedrock environmental law, including setting tighter deadlines for environmental reviews, allowing applicants to propose just one alternative, and limiting the nature of relief afforded in court challenges. Supporters say it speeds up essential housing and infrastructure without gutting oversight, while critics maintain it dramatically weakens a more than 50-year-old safeguard of California's environment. Moderated by King Hall Professor Christopher Elmendorf, this pros-and-cons debate will begin with a short overview of CEQA’s history, its evolution, and the details of the ballot initiative, followed by opening statements, structured rebuttals, and a live audience Q&A to close.
Matthew McKerley '19 (Con)
Matthew is an attorney at Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, where his practice focuses on CEQA, land use, environmental, and clean energy law. Matthew has represented community groups and public agencies throughout California, both as petitioners challenging inadequate environmental review and as counsel defending agencies against legal challenges to their land use and environmental decisions. Before joining SMW, Matthew clerked for the Honorable Craig F. Stowers on the Alaska Supreme Court. He earned his J.D. from King Hall, Order of the Coif.
Christopher S. Elmendorf (Moderator)
Chris Elmendorf is Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law at UC Davis, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Institute for Progress, and a member of the BUILD Research Network’s advisory board. He is a leading authority on land-use and housing law and has done widely noted work on public opinion about housing markets and policy. Published in numerous top journals across the fields of law, political science, and economics, his research has shaped legislation and judicial opinions and been covered by major media outlets including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Forbes, Bloomberg News, and CalMatters. Elmendorf clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi on the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit before joining the UC Davis faculty.
Scheduled "pro" speaker unable to attend. Information coming soon.
Lunch provided. Presented by CELPC.