News

Professor Lisa R. Pruitt spoke to preLaw Magazine about rural legal deserts, or areas with too few lawyers and judges to meet demand.

Professor Carlton F.W. Larson spoke to Redding’s KRCR ABC7 about President Donald Trump’s order to freeze federal spending.

The order’s statement that the administration is reviewing all spending to make sure it aligns with the Trump administration’s recent executive actions is “completely inconsistent with the idea of a law,” Larson said.

Professor Richard Frank spoke to San Francisco’s KCBS Radio and to ClimateBrief about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order on Jan. 12 to suspend the application of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the California Coastal Act regarding future reconstruction efforts at sites affected by the catastrophic Los Angeles fires.

On Jan. 1, Professor Elizabeth Joh was appointed to the inaugural advisory board for the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown University Law Center. 

Professor Karrigan Börk spoke to the New York Times and several other media outlets about President Donald Trump’s escalating criticism and actions regarding California’s management of its water supplies.

Professor Vikram D. Amar is one of the most respected, and most frequently cited, authorities on constitutional law, federal courts, and civil procedure. He returned to King Hall as a Distinguished Professor of Law in 2023 after serving as Dean and Iwan Foundation Professor of Law at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign College of Law for eight years. He was the first American-born person of Indian descent to serve as Dean of a major American law school.

Professor Shayak Sarkar spoke to Salon for a Dec. 11 story on Republican opposition to the  Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In a  Dec. 13 in Newsweek opinion piece, Professor Shayak Sarkar and civil and workers’ rights lawyer Josh Rosenthal wrote about President Donald Trump’s and border czar Tom Homan’s plans for mass deportations.

“Mass deportation plans rely on others’ cooperation,” Sarkar and Rosenthal wrote. “And the Constitution provides guidance and protections to meet this moment.”

On Monday, Jan. 20, UC Davis School of Law hosted its sixth annual MLK Day of Service and Celebration, honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Members of the UC Davis Black Law Students Association, in partnership with the law school's Office for Student Affairs and the Dean's Office, led efforts to celebrate MLK Day.

Leading media outlets and others have sought the expertise of UC Davis Law immigration law Professors Kevin R. Johnson and Gabriel “Jack” Chin in assessing President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement agenda.

Johnene Stebbins ’96 won election to the Santa Clara County Superior Court in November.

A longtime Santa Clara County deputy district attorney, Stebbins defeated Chief Assistant District Attorney Jay Boyarsky, receiving 55% of the vote to Boyarsky’s 45%.

Stebbins filled a vacancy on the court created by Judge Vincent Chiarello’s retirement.

Professor Kevin R. Johnson spoke to Sacramento Bee reporter Matthew Miranda about a potential immigration crackdown in Sacramento in the lead-up to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

University of Virginia School of Law Professor Amanda Frost references a 2021 UC Davis Law Review article co-written by Professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin in a Jan. 7 essay in The Atlantic headlined “The Coming Assault on Birthright Citizenship.”

UC Davis School of Law hosted the sixth Equality Law Scholars’ Forum Nov. 15-16. 

Professor Kevin R. Johnson will speak at the event “Mass Deportation: How History Shapes the Coming Fight” on Friday, Jan. 17 in San Francisco.

Cabinet, an art press in Brooklyn, has published Professor Brian Soucek’s Permitting Art: Visual Arts and the First Amendment on the Streets of New York as the first book in its new series “Art before the law.”

Co-director of the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic and King Hall alumna Holly S. Cooper ’98 is a nationally recognized expert on immigration detention issues and on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions. Both clients and King Hall students benefit from her extensive litigation experience defending the rights of immigrants.

In December, Professor of Environmental Practice Rick Frank filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on behalf of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies.

Professor Darien Shanske spoke to Bloomberg Law for a Jan. 3 story about a Maryland Tax Court order calling for a lengthy discovery process in the legal battle over the state's first-in-the-nation digital advertising tax. Apple, Google, Meta and the Peacock streaming service have challenged the tax.

On Dec. 12, UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May held a reception at the Mondavi Center honoring Distinguished Professor of Law Kevin R. Johnson’s 16+ years as dean of UC Davis School of Law.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit cited an article by Professor Chimène Keitner in U.S. v. Türkiye Halk Bankasi A.Ş. 

Professor of Environmental Practice and California Environmental Law & Policy Center Co-Director Rick Frank co-taught a Dec. 12-13 California Judicial Council-sponsored course in Sacramento designed to train state court judges regarding principles of California water law. 

Professors Kevin R. Johnson and Amagda Pérez appeared on ABC10 Sacramento’s To the Point with Alex Bell for an expansive Dec.

Professor Emeritus Alan Brownstein wrote an essay titled “Teaching Controversial Subjects” for the 2024 edition of the California Supreme Court Historical Society’s California Legal History journal.

The annual journal publishes scholarly articles as well as oral histories of important figures from California’s bar and judiciary.

Professor Afra Afsharipour delivered two lectures as a visiting scholar in Taiwan in early December. National Chung Hsing University in Taichung hosted Afsharipour’s visit.