King Hall Faculty Contribute Expertise to Supreme Court Media Coverage
UC Davis School of Law's strength in constitutional law was on prominent display as King Hall faculty contributed to national and local media coverage of a series of momentous U.S. Supreme Court rulings. As the Court concluded its most recent session with rulings on immigration, abortion rights, affirmative action, and other issues, media including Newsweek, the Christian Science Monitor, and SCOTUSblog, as well as public radio stations KPFA and KXJZ turned to King Hall faculty for insight and analysis.
In addition, Professor Gabriel "Jack" Chin was cited in Justice Sonia Sotomayor's dissent in Utah v. Strieff, a case concerning Fourth Amendment rights and police searches. Justice Sotomayor quoted from Chin's article "The New Civil Death: Rethinking Punishments in the Era of Mass Conviction" (first published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review in 2012) in referencing the collateral consequences of criminal convictions.
Dean Kevin R. Johnson, an internationally renowned expert in immigration law, was interviewed by media including the Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, and Bay Area public radio station KPFA on United States v. Texas, a case concerning the constitutionality of the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) immigration program. The Christian Science Monitor article quoted from an essay on U.S. v. Texas that Dean Johnson published on SCOTUSblog, where he regularly contributes entries on Supreme Court immigration law cases. Professor Chin also commented on the case for SCOTUSblog, contributing an article to an online "Symposium on the Court's ruling in United States v. Texas". Chin's contribution, "From here, where to?" analyzes various aspects of the case and explores potential scenarios for its resolution.
Professor Lisa R. Pruitt appeared as a guest on the Capital Public Radio program Insight with Beth Ruyak to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a Texas law that imposed strict requirements on abortion providers. María Blanco, Executive Director of the UC Undocumented Legal Services Center, which operates out of UC Davis School of Law, was a guest on another episode of Insight to analyze recent Supreme Court decisions in cases involving access to abortion, affirmative action in college admissions, and immigration.
UC Davis School of Law has a tradition of excellence in constitutional law that extends back to its founding Dean Edward L. Barrett, a renowned constitutional law scholar and the author of the widely used text Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials as well as numerous influential articles. In his honor, the School of Law established the Edward L. Barrett, Jr. Lecture in Constitutional Law, an annual event that brings renowned legal scholars to King Hall for lectures on topical issues in constitutional law. In recent years, lecturers have included former Solicitor General Drew S. Days III, Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Erwin Chemerinksy, now Dean of UC Irvine School of Law, and other distinguished guests. The next Barrett Lecture will be delivered by Michael C. Dorf, Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, on November 3, 2016.
King Hall faculty continue to be actively engaged with the Supreme Court. Four professors-Ashutosh Bhagwat, William S. Dodge, Floyd Feeney, and Aaron Tang-are former U.S. Supreme Court clerks. Senior Associate Dean Madhavi Sunder recently organized a series of Supreme Court Lunch Talks that will feature presentations by Dean Johnson as well as Professors Bhagwat, Dodge, Pruitt, Elizabeth Joh, and Brian Soucek, and the School of Law is in the process of organizing panel discussions on the prior and upcoming Supreme Court terms that will be open to the entire campus community. In addition, Holly Cooper, Associate Director of the UC Davis School of Law Immigration Law Clinic, was part of a team of amici who wrote a "stories brief" in support of a successful petition for a writ of certiorari in Jennings v. Rodriguez, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit immigration case now set for Supreme Court review.