Almost a year ago, we brought you the story of the University of California at Berkeley versus the California Environmental Quality Act. The university wanted to increase enrollment by 3,000 students, but residents of Berkeley didn’t want the university to grow, so they sued in state court alleging that the university had failed to study the environmental impact of accepting more students, as required by the CEQA.

The Berkeleyites won in trial, on appeal, and in California’s Supreme Court. They put a complete stop to the university’s expansion plans. At that point, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and the California state legislature stepped in. But instead of reforming CEQA, a law that has put a stranglehold on California’s ability to build anything (new houses, new train lines, new power lines, etc.), the Democrats who control California decided instead to give the university a one-time exemption from CEQA’s environmental impact requirements.

But that exemption applied just to the larger plan to expand university enrollment. The university had to go through a completely different permitting process to begin construction on actual new dorms. And when the university announced plans to build a thousand-student dorm on People’s Park, residents again used CEQA to block construction.

Again, first a state trial court and now a state appellate court have both ruled for the residents, finding that the university failed to study adequately how building the new dorm would lead to more “social noise” from students. The appellate decision also noted that the university additionally failed to study how the new dorm would lead to increased gentrification and homelessness.

Yes, that's right — the court actually ruled that building more housing would lead to more homelessness.

If the university loses in California’s Supreme Court yet again, the legislature will be forced to step in again. Will Democrats in California finally admit that the environmental laws they created are a nightmare — a huge part of the reason their states have become unlivable for the thousands of middle-class families that flee every year?

Don't bet on it. California Democrats are not known for self-reflection or self-awareness. They’ll probably pass another one-time CEQA exemption and then blame Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for the whole episode.

Maybe someday, the Democrats will wise up, stop blaming the Republicans, and fix their state’s onerous environmental regulations. Until then, they will keep having to act as a de facto statewide zoning board.