June 2023
Big decisions at the Supreme Court:
UCLA Law experts weigh in
As the Supreme Court’s most recent term ended and observers considered the array of decisions that will have a lasting impact across the nation for years to come, UCLA Law’s faculty members stepped in to evaluate the impact of the term. From affirmative action to the environment to voting rights, a great many areas of American life are affected by how the justices ruled. We are proud to offer this extensive rundown of what our experts had to say.
See what these legal authorities think about the SCOTUS opinions.
Honors abound! Faculty members
earn awards for their impactful work
In recent months, four UCLA Law professors have taken home major awards for their stellar contributions to the law and public good. Carole Goldberg won UCLA's Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorship Award. Jill Horwitz earned the ABA’s Outstanding Nonprofit Lawyer Award. And Sharon Dolovich and Aaron Littman shared UCLA's Public Impact Research Award for highlighting health concerns in the nation’s prisons since the start of the pandemic.
Public interest prestige:
Students secure coveted fellowships
Six graduating students in the Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy have earned fellowships to serve communities across the United States. The awards – from the Skadden Fellowship Foundation, Equal Justice Works and Justice Corps – represent some of the highest honors in public interest for law students and recent graduates. They underscore UCLA Law's position as the home of the country's most promising public interest lawyers.
The Entrepreneurial State: Students
learn artful ways of applying the law
In the law school's Entrepreneurial State seminar, Professor Jon Michaels and his students regularly leverage the course’s innovative attitude to respond directly to matters at the top of the news. During the last school year, this meant that they focused on three main issues: reparations for past wrongs in California; using market tools to resist repressive forms of governmental power; and taking seriously a national partition or confederation of states.
Students publish report on prison conditions during the pandemic
A team of student researchers from UCLA Law’s Prison Accountability Project have published a report that details incarcerated individuals’ experiences in California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation facilities during the height of the pandemic. The report — which identified medical abuse and neglect, unsanitary conditions, physical violence and more — was covered in the Los Angeles Times on the same day it was published.
Immigration impact: How Shiu-Ming
Cheer '00 goes above and beyond
Throughout her career and in her current work as an interim co-executive director at the California Immigrant Policy Center, UCLA Law alumna Shiu-Ming Cheer '00 has championed immigration justice by focusing on public policy work that straddles the intersections between immigrant rights and issues including food security, workers' protections and access to health services. The extent of her impact has been incredible.
Check in with this outstanding member of the law school community.
The rabbi is in: Professor Jonathan Zasloff blends the spiritual and law
Can law and spirituality coexist? In Professor Jonathan Zasloff’s Foundations of Jewish Ethics course, they can, and do. “I try to teach the class as a course in ‘virtue ethics,’ which is a fancy way of saying, ‘How do we craft our souls? How do you make yourself the person you want to be?’ Which is exactly what we should be doing in an ethics class,” he says. Zasloff is an expert in environmental and property law, as well as an ordained rabbi.
A toast to the UCLA Law Class of 2023!
On May 12, more than a thousand family members, mentors and other guests gathered at UCLA to celebrate the law school’s Class of 2023 and watch the graduates cross the threshold from students to alumni. In total, 319 earned juris doctor (J.D.) degrees, 227 earned master of laws (LL.M.) degrees and 38 earned masters of legal studies (M.L.S.) degrees. The roster of distinguished speakers included keynote presenter Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general.
Alumni class notes are now on LinkedIn!
Follow UCLA Law on LinkedIn here & stay up-to-date on all alumni news.
Rick Hasen writes a New York Times opinion essay on Chief Justice Roberts and the Voting Rights Act. Cara Horowitz is quoted by the AP on the Supreme Court's wetlands decision. Jerry Kang speaks with Axios about affirmative action. Adam Winkler speaks with the Washington Post about Hunter Biden's plea deal. Joanna Schwartz discusses qualified immunity for police with the Miami Herald. Jonathan Zasloff writes a piece in the Hill on legal ways to keep the A's in Oakland. Ahilan Arulanantham talks to CBS News about immigrants with temporary protected status. Carole Goldberg talks to the San Francisco Chronicle about a tribe's bid for federal recognition. Scott Cummings talks to the Los Angeles Times about the ethics of publicly releasing law firm emails. Kal Raustiala is quoted in the Cut about dupes and knockoffs in fashion and design. Ingrid Eagly talks to the Los Angeles Times about conditions at an immigration detention center. Victor Narro talks to Spectrum News about strippers who unionized. James Salzman talks to the Los Angeles Times about the Colorado River water deal. Sharon Dolovich discusses public and private prisons in the Los Angeles Times. Eugene Volokh talks to the Portland Press Herald about assault weapon regulation. Joseph Fishkin is quoted by the Nation on the debt-ceiling crisis. Jon Michaels reflects on Daniel Ellsberg in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. And Daniel Lowenstein talks to the New York Times about elections.
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