The ruling is that Berkeley did break the law. Or, at least, they didn’t follow it. California has an environmental law called the California Environmental Qua

The ruling is that Berkeley did break the law. Or, at least, they didn’t follow it. California has an environmental law called the California Environmental Quality Act[1] or CEQA. It sets forth a process that all state and local government entities (including state universities) must follow when undertaking new projects. My very superficial legal understanding of the CEQA is that it’s seriously complex. I’m on mobile so I’m having a hard time finding the document but to give you an idea of the complexity the state puts out an annual CEQA handbook with all the rules and guidance and recent cases and it’s something like 400 pages long. (Edit: Here’s a link to the PDF[2] of the 2021 Handbook.) At the heart of CEQA is a requirement that, prior to undertaking a new project, the entity has to complete an environmental assessment of how the proposed project will impact things like water use, pollution, noise, etc. Then they need to publish the report, get comment from the public, and, in certain instances, adjust the project plan to minimize the impact. CEQA also, somewhat controversially, allows for a private right of civil action. So when a state or local government entity in California doesn’t comply with CEQA then a person who is or may be negatively impacted by the failure to comply can file a civil suit and that’s what happened here. The reason the private right of action is controversial is because it’s sometimes (often?) used as pretext to get a court-order to prevent a project by people or groups who aren’t at all concerned for the environment but have some other motive. And, because the law is incredibly complex, it turns out it’s not a bad legal strategy for NIMBYs. (Edit: I just want to clarify that I don’t mean to imply the group who filed this suit are NIMBYs or environmental activists. I have zero idea as to their motives.) Anyway, this case wound up on this judge’s docket because a local group brought suit under CEQA alleging the University didn’t follow all of the requirements and the judge agreed. So he sent them back to do the process again. And in the meantime, he froze enrollment. (Again, I have a very superficial understanding of how it works so take everything I’ve said with a grain of salt. In practice it’s far more complex than what I’ve described.) [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Environmental_Quality_Act https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Environmental_Qua... [2]https://www.califaep.org/docs/CEQA_Handbook_2021.pdf https://www.califaep.org/docs/CEQA_Handbook_2021.pdf