News

On March 11, Professor of Environmental Practice Rick Frank was invited to testify before the California Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water in Sacramento. The hearing was titled “The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) at 11 Years: Progress and Challenges.”

Professor Mary Ziegler appeared on the CBS Evening News and spoke to MSNBC’s Katy Tur  about the first arrests under Texas’ near-total abortion ban.

UC Davis Law will continue to build upon its strong foundation of academic excellence beginning in July.

Professor Kevin R. Johnson spoke to CalMatters for a March 19 story on how students are urging universities to prevent arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on their campuses.

The calls come in light of the Trump administration’s reversal in January of longtime U.S. policies that limited  ICE from arresting people at “sensitive locations” such as schools and churches. 

Professor Kevin R.

Professor Kevin R. Johnson participated in the California State Association of Counties webinar “Immigration Basics for California Counties: Just the Facts -- Data, Patterns and Trends.”

Pew Research Center Senior Writer and Editor Jens Manuel Krogstad also presented during the webinar, which included a special introduction by Monterey County Supervisor and UC Davis Law alumnus Luis Alejo ’01, CSAC’s second vice president.

Reporter Gurajpal Sangha of Sacramento’s ABC10 news interviewed Professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin on March 13 about President Donald Trump’s then-imminent

In an essay first published in The Bond Buyer, Professor Darien Shanske argues that  states and/or university systems issue taxable 100-year century bonds to support key research projects amid the Trump administration’s cuts to core projects.

Professor Kevin R. Johnson has joined the advisory committee for a forthcoming California Museum exhibit on forced deportations of Latina/o Californians. Legendary farm labor and civil rights organizer Dolores Huerta and UCLA history Professor Kelly Lytle Hernández also are advisors.

Professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin wrote a legal explainer piece for The Conversation and spoke to the Christian Science Monitor about the March 5 arrest and subsequent detention of Mahmoud Khalil, the recent Colu

Bloomberg Television visited King Hall in February to interview Professor Amelia Miazad about faith-based investing. Miazad has written a paper on the topic.

In Bloomberg’s subsequent news report, Miazad discussed the long history of faith-based investing, and noted that “the Christian investor community cannot be summarized on a bumper sticker.”

The King Hall Negotiations team hosted 30 teams of talented first-year UC Davis Law students on March 1 at the 17th annual Intraschool Negotiations Competition.

Congratulations to the winning teams of Anusha Entezari and Reagan Lewis and Wyatt Herrera and Cameron Lane and finalist teams Farhad Abadani and Logan James and Madison Mitchell and Angelene Obedoza. 

On March 6, students Thacher Hoch ’25 and Sinporion Phuong ’25 argued on behalf of a Civil Rights Clinic client before a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. The panel comprised Judges Kim McLane Wardlaw, Richard A. Paez and Kenneth K. Lee.

Nayarith Franco Vasquez ’26 has received a prestigious Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund Law School Scholarship. Franco Vasquez is one of 10 law students across the nation awarded $5,000.

Professor Kevin R. Johnson spoke to the nonprofit publication Capital & Main for a Feb. 3 story discussing the history of mass deportations from the United States and what President Donald Trump’s promised mass removals would require to be enforced.

Professor Karrigan Börk spoke to Huffington Post for a Jan. 27 story about President Donald Trump blaming California water policies – and the protected Delta smelt – for the recent wildfires in Los Angeles.

Professor Karrigan Börk spoke to the Sierra Nevada Ally news site on Feb. 21 about the increased water flows, ordered by President Donald Trump, from Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success.

On Feb. 5, Professor Courtney Joslin  discussed her current work in progress as part of UC Davis Law’s "The Secret Life of Faculty"  series.

The series gives small groups of students opportunities to engage directly with professors about their works in progress, teaching philosophies and career paths. Joslin is one of five faculty members featured in the series in 2024-25.

Professor Courtney Joslin presented a work in progress on Feb. 21 at the West Coast Sexuality, Gender and the Law Conference at UC Irvine. The next day, Joslin commented on Professor Albertina Antognini (University of Arizona) and Susan Appleton’s (Washington University) piece “Abolishing Family Law.”

On Feb. 20, Professor Courtney Joslin delivered the Evolving Doctrine Lecture Series talk at the University of San Diego School of Law.

Established in 2023, the Evolving Doctrine Lecture Series gives modern perspectives on doctrinal lectures.

Professor Courtney Joslin  was a panelist at a Feb. 6 event hosted by the Michigan Judicial Institute to educate the state’s judges about the Michigan Family Protection Act.

The act, which goes into effect April 1, updates Michigan’s parentage statutes to protect families formed through IVF and other forms of assisted reproduction.

Professor Darien Shanske is an expert on taxation, local government law, public finance, and political theory. He takes an exceptionally long view of jurisprudence, informed by his scholarship on ancient Athens. In addition to his J.D. from Stanford Law School, he holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in rhetoric, an M.A. from McGill University in philosophy, and a B.A. from Columbia University in philosophy and history.

Colleges across the United States have been enacting “neutrality” policies – whether voluntarily or under orders from state legislators – and “their timing couldn’t be worse,” writes Professor Brian Soucek in a Feb. 18 opinion piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

On Jan. 10, Professor David Sandino gave the introductory lecture for the 2025 Delta Leadership Program about the legal and policy issues associated with understanding the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The Delta Leadership Program is organized by the Delta Protection Commission and the Delta Foundation to educate Delta citizens about water issues, promote leadership and form networks.