Faculty Who Lead: UC Law SF Experts Discuss Citizenship, Immigration, Presidential Powers, DEI and Vaccines
UC Law San Francisco faculty are speaking about key national issues such as constitutional rights, immigration and refugee rights, presidential powers, vaccines, and workplace equality.
Immigration and Citizenship
The Guardian
Professor Ming Hsu Chen says the Trump administration’s challenges to the constitutional right of birthright citizenship are without legal precent and represent a “radical re-envisioning of what America looks like.”
>> How a young Chinatown cook helped establish birthright citizenship in the US
KQED
Chen discusses constitutionality and presidential powers related to the current administration’s restrictive immigration laws, and the landmark 1898 Wong Kim Ark case which established the precedent of birthright citizenship in the U.S.
>> A 129-Year-Old San Francisco Lawsuit Could Stop Trump From Ending Birthright Citizenship
Ming Chen
Professor Ming Hsu Chen is director of the Race, Immigration, Citizenship, and Equality Program. She is the author of Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era (Stanford University Press 2020).
KRON
Professor Rory Little discusses the legal and constitutional aspects of the birthright citizenship executive order and a federal judge’s temporary restraining order. Little states the President does not have legal power to override the rights and liberties set out in the Fourteenth Amendment.
>> KRON4 and UC Law SF Professor Rory Little
Rory Little
Professor Rory Little is a national authority on constitutional law and writes about U.S Supreme Court criminal law cases on Scotusblog.com.
KALW Public Media
Professor Blaine Bookey joins an expert panel to discuss the potential impacts of new immigration policies. Bookey answers audience questions and discusses UC Law SF’s Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) work in the courts.
>> The Bay Agenda: Project 2025 Arrives – Immigration & The Justice System
Blaine Bookey
Professor Blaine Bookey is legal director of the UC Law San Francisco Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, where she advocates and litigates on behalf of asylum seekers and refugees.
Immigration Impact
Anne Peterson of CGRS writes in an op-ed that immigration and customs enforcement failures create inhuman conditions that put lives at risk in detention facilities. Peterson discusses the ways CGRS work is challenging government policies on behalf of asylum seekers.
>> ICE’s Inadequate Recordkeeping on Treatment of Detained Asylum Seekers Threatens Their Lives
Anne Peterson is senior counsel at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies where she litigates and conducts policy advocacy on behalf of asylum seekers and refugees.
CBS-13 (Sacramento)
Professor John Myers suggests a flier distributed in Roseville, California urging residents to report undocumented immigrants likely falls under First Amendment freedom of speech protections. California passed the Stop Hate Littering Act in 2024 in response to the rise of hate crimes in the state.
>> Flyer urges Roseville residents to report illegal immigrants: “I was outraged.”
John Myers
Professor John Myers represents child victims of abuse and domestic violence in the courts. The author of 15 books on the subject, Myers’ work has been cited by the U.S Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court.
Presidential Powers
PolitiFact
Professor Zachary Price discusses the law and history of presidential impoundment power following the Trump administration ordering a temporary pause on federal funds. Price adds that the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 provides the statutory framework for managing spending delays.
>> Trump administration memo freezing federal funds kicks off legal battle over impoundment power
Zachary Price
Professor Zachary Price was previously an attorney in the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. He has also worked as a litigator in private practice and clerked for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court.
San Francisco Examiner
Professor Clark Freshman suggests President Trump’s executive order on recognizing only the sex assigned at birth on passports and visas is likely to face immediate challenges in court.
>> California ID standards unchanged amid Trump order
Clark Freshman
Professor Clark Freshman is a negotiation and dispute resolution expert and has been invited to speak on the subject at Harvard, Yale, and UCLA.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
MSN
UC Law SF’s Equality Action Center’s Professor Joan Williams provides an actionable and measurable way to address bias in job interviews in an op-ed by author and journalist Brigid Schulte.
>> Trump’s Right: DEI Programs at Work Don’t Promote Fairness. Here’s What Will
Joan Williams
Professor Joan Williams is the founding director of UC Law San Francisco’s Equality Action Center. Described as having “something approaching rock star status” in her field by The New York Times Magazine, Joan C. Williams is a scholar of social inequality.
Health and Vaccines
ABC News
Professor Dorit Reiss comments on Robert Kennedy Jr.’s claim that he is not against vaccines and Kennedy’s stake in civil suit against vaccine manufacture Merek & Co.
>> RFK Jr. says he’s not anti-vaccine. But he could profit off claim in vaccine lawsuit.
Dorit Reiss
Professor Dorit Reiss is a researcher and writer on the legal and policy issues of vaccines, and the anti-vaccine movement.