NEW CENTER ON REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, LAW AND POLICY ESTABLISHED

Cary Franklin

As the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case from Mississippi potentially designed to overturn Roe v. Wade in December, UCLA Law launched the Center on Reproductive Health, Law and Policy to address the most pressing legal issues for reproductive rights in the nation today.

The new center is funded through a $5 million state budget allocation that is part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s broader initiative to make California a sanctuary for reproductive health and take a national lead in ensuring access. “The need for scholars, policymakers, and advocates who are focused on advancing reproductive health, law, and policy could not be more pressing,” says Brad Sears, UCLA Law’s associate dean of public interest law and interim executive director of the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy.

“States are also rushing to pass laws that further restrict access to contraception and abortion – including, most famously, SB8 in Texas. They are also creating religious and moral exemptions to anti-discrimination laws that threaten to deny women access to contraception, abortion, and other fundamental health care services,” he added.

The new center, the fi rst interdisciplinary academic center focused on these issues on the West Coast, will address these challenges by producing research-informed strategies to transform current debates, hosting a variety of new courses in the fi eld, providing scholarships and summer fellowships for students who aim to be reproductive rights lawyers, and programming for practicing attorneys to keep current on cutting-edge trends in the law. The center will focus on fi ve primary goals, drawn from feedback from more than 60 local and national stakeholders:

• Training tomorrow’s leaders: Increasing the number of law students and lawyers who are trained to work on reproductive rights through litigation, policy, and advocacy.

• Educating key stakeholders and decision makers: Providing legislators, judges, non-profi t leaders, health care providers, and lawyers with reliable, current data and arguments to advance reproductive health and rights.

• Convening for innovation: Creating a trusted place to convene reproductive rights scholars and advocates to discuss ideas across diff erence and innovate new paths forward.

• Producing scholarship that matters: Publishing rigorous, interdisciplinary research that will impact current reproductive health and rights debates.

• Changing the narrative: Building a national research and storytelling collaborative to create and disseminate compelling narratives to advance reproductive justice.

UCLA Law is currently conducting a nationwide search for the center’s inaugural leadership, including an executive director and deputy director. Several faculty members are in place, including Professor Cary Franklin, a nationally celebrated authority in law and sexuality, who holds the McDonald/Wright Chair of Law and serves as the faculty director of the Williams Institute.

Fellows include Sapna Khatri, the Sears Sexual and Reproductive Health Clinical Law Teaching Fellow; Sofi a Pedroza ’21, working at the California Planned Parenthood Education Fund as the center’s fi rst post-graduate fellow; and current UCLA Law student Brittany Chung ’24, who will be the center’s fi rst public interest scholar.

“This new center is a strategic investment in the protection of reproductive rights, and we are proud to be the home of this vital eff ort. We are immensely grateful to Gov. Newsom and the California legislature for giving this law school the funds to make the center a reality,” says UCLA Law Dean Jennifer L. Mnookin.

The two dozen students in the law school’s Supreme Court Simulation course got a thrill last February when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer joined by Zoom to be their special guest for the day. Breyer shared how he prepares for oral argument, off ered a general glimpse into the justices-only conference where they discuss and decide cases, and presented his views on what makes a good advocate. The Supreme Court Simulation was taught by Adam Winkler, the Michael J. Connell Professor of Law, and lecturer Ryan Azad ’17. In the course, students take cases that are currently pending before the high court, simulate attorneys’ oral arguments, and decide and write judicial opinions.

During his visit, Breyer shared several amusing anecdotes from his quarter-century on the court and received a word of thanks from a student whose family was helped by the court’s 2020 opinion, which Breyer joined, in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, which struck down a Trump administration eff ort to rescind the DACA immigration program.

“Justice Breyer off ered an inspiring perspective on the inner workings of the Supreme Court. The advice and stories that he shared undoubtedly boosted our students’ understanding of the court and added to the tools that they are collecting in becoming successful advocates,” Winkler says. “We are so grateful that he agreed to participate in our class.”

For the students, the chance to learn directly from a Supreme Court justice was a once-in-a-law-school-career opportunity.

“Justice Breyer is a large part of the reason I came to law school. He’s always so thorough, thoughtful, and genuinely concerned with understanding all of the issues and reaching the right result. He’s also incredibly funny,” says Emme Tyler ’21, who hopes to become a judge during her legal career. “Justice Breyer is what I want to be when I grow up: someone with integrity, passion, and an undying commitment to upholding an institution that serves as the last bastion for individual and civil rights.”

Breyer has served on the Supreme Court since 1994. He previously came to UCLA Law in 2010 and 2015. Most recently, Justice Elena Kagan spent a day at the law school in 2018, while Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sandra Day O'Connor have also visited.

UCLA Law alumna Whitney A. Brown ’17 is clerking for Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the U.S. Supreme Court during the 2021-22 term. She is the 20th UCLA Law graduate to clerk on the Supreme Court and the fi rst since Rachel Bloomekatz ’08 clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer during the 2011-12 term. Brown most recently worked as an attorney with Stoel Rives LLP in Anchorage, Alaska, as an associate in the fi rm’s litigation group. She previously clerked for Judge Morgan Christen of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Justice Goodwin Liu of the Supreme Court of California, and Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

“At every step of this journey, I have been buoyed by the support and encouragement of my UCLA professors and classmates, my judges, and my colleagues, friends, and family,” says Brown. “I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to serve Justice Sotomayor and the Court.”

During her tenure at UCLA Law, she served as the editor-in-chief of the UCLA Law Review and co-president of the Health Law Society. She was also part of a team of students and faculty members who successfully represented a client before the high court in the 2017

case Nelson v. Colorado, as part of the law school’s Supreme Court Clinic. Before law school, Brown was a health policy adviser in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and an evaluator of charter schools in Chicago. She earned her undergraduate degree in anthropology, with honors, from the University of Chicago and her graduate degree in public health from Emory University. “In the fi nest tradition of UCLA-trained lawyers, Whitney Whitney A. Brown combines compassion and intellect in equal measure, and she has a tremendous ability to see both the forest and the trees. She cares about the intellectual integrity of legal argument, and she cares about law’s eff ects on real people,” says Dean Jennifer L. Mnookin. “I’m thrilled she has this well-deserved opportunity and know that Whitney will continue to make her alma mater proud.” UCLA Law graduates have served as Supreme Court clerks since 1954 – just two years after the law school celebrated the graduation of its fi rst class – when Harvey Grossman ’54 began his clerkship with Justice William O. Douglas. In the decades since, another 19 alumni have clerked for 11 diff erent justices, including Douglas, Chief Justices Earl Warren and Warren Burger, and Justices John Paul Stevens, Thurgood Marshall, William Rehnquist (before he became chief justice), Byron White, Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Sotomayor.

On June 9, 2021, the Williams Institute held a grand party — online — to celebrate its two decades of producing research with real-world relevance and impacting the lives and well-being of LGBTQ people around the world. The virtual event showcased the institute’s legacy of ensuring that data and facts, not myths and stereotypes, are used to shape public policy and laws in the United States and elsewhere. As befi tted a celebration honoring a full 20 years of groundbreaking work and partnerships, the video presentation featured a host of well-wishers, special guests, and honorees from the institute’s storied history. These included U.S. Representatives Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Maxine Waters Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-CA), award-winning music legend Diane Warren, and inaugural founders Chuck Williams and Stu Walter, who sat down for an in-depth conversation with Dean Jennifer L. Mnookin to look back at their historic decision to found an institute devoted to the legal rights of LGBTQ people across the globe at the dawn of the 21st century.

Another featured dignitary that June night was Hillary Rodham Clinton, who accepted the International Impact Award, given for her many contributions, including her then-revolutionary 2011 statement, while serving as Secretary of State, that “LGBTQ rights are human rights, and human rights are LGBTQ rights.” The award was presented by Founding Executive Director Brad Sears.

In accepting the award, Clinton said of her remarks, “It really is one of the speeches that I'm proudest of from my time as Secretary of State. I also believe expressing our principles is important, but not enough.”

“Of course, none of the strides we've made would be possible without excellent research and data,” she continued. “So when the Obama administration helped launch the LGBTQ global development partnership — the fi rst vehicle to advance LGBTQ rights through U.S. foreign policy and development assistance — the Williams Institute was a key founding partner.”

“Thank you for this stunning award. I could not be more grateful for the collaboration between the U.S. government and the Williams Institute. And congratulations, once again, on all you have accomplished and all you will keep accomplishing for the years ahead,” she said.

Several prominent leaders in government and global human rights participated in illuminating conversations with UCLA Law Dean Jennifer L. Mnookin in 202021, on topics ranging from criminal justice to leadership. In October 2021, UCLA Law’s Criminal Justice Program hosted a conversation between Mnookin and Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón. He was elected to the top prosecution job in L.A. County in 2020 – after having served in the same role in San Francisco – in what was viewed as a major victory for the progressive movement.

Occurring a year after Gascón entered offi ce with substantial backing from leaders including Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor Eric Garcetti, Kamala Harris, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta, his conversation with Mnookin touched on his eff orts to change practices involving pretrial detention, juvenile justice, sentencing, marijuana convictions, cash bail, and more – and on the criticisms that he has faced for doing so.

In March 2021, Mnookin joined the celebrated human rights lawyer Amal Clooney in a conversation titled “Doing the Right Thing,” where they shared their perspectives on leadership, success, and making a positive diff erence in the world. Their discussion was part

of the “UCLA Leaders of Tomorrow” series of events, presented by the UCLA David Geff en School of Medicine. Geff en School faculty member Eric Esrailian, who led the eff ort to create the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law in 2017, moderated the discussion. Mnookin and Clooney agreed that seizing opportunity and turning it into meaningful impact is a central motivation. Mnookin noted that, as dean of UCLA Law, she works to expand possibilities Amal Clooney for lawyers and future lawyers to make a diff erence. Clooney said, “There’s some people who watch the news and don’t just sort of bury their heads in their hand. They think, 'What am I going to do about this?'” In September 2020, UCLA Law hosted a discussion between Mnookin and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. As the district attorney in New York City, Vance has been at the center of major investigations involving Harvey Weinstein, the Trump Organization, terrorism, fi nancial crimes, and more. He and Mnookin talked about the impact of the #MeToo movement and the uprising following the killing of George Floyd, as well as the philosophies that have driven his leadership of one of the nation’s most active D.A. offi ces since he was fi rst elected to the job a decade ago. “The role of district attorney has changed in that I, and I think others, defi ne ‘crime fi ghting’ diff erently than I did when I came in in 2010,” Vance said. “And by that, I mean: I think we can all agree that a crime prevented is far better than a crime prosecuted — for all the parties.”

As issues of police accountability have taken on increased resonance amid protests following the murder of George Floyd and the conviction of Derek Chauvin, among other major developments, Professor Joanna Schwartz has continued to drive the national discussion through her impactful work in the area. A leading scholar in the fi eld of police accountability for more than a decade, her work has been cited widely by dozens of courts across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, her expertise on qualifi ed immunity — the doctrine that protects police offi cers and government offi cials from civil liability for on-the-job misconduct, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in two unsigned opinions in October — is gaining traction among policymakers who are looking to change our culture of policing, and it is drawing intense interest from scholars and the media.

In 2021, Schwartz wrote op-eds in USA Today and The Atlantic magazine, where she proposed changes to qualifi ed immunity. She also appeared on the PBS NewsHour and in articles by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker magazine, CNN, and

other major national outlets to discuss the nuances of the topic. She has served as an advisor to senators who are engaged in this issue and testifi ed before several state legislative committees. In the days following Floyd’s homicide, she consulted with members of congress to help them craft reform proposals that went to the fl oors of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. She also off ered testimony before the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission Joanna Schwartz that lent invaluable aid to that state’s successful eff ort to abolish qualifi ed immunity. This work built on her prolifi c scholarship in the area. Her landmark research includes studies revealing that state and local government agencies have indemnifi ed offi cers for 99.98% of the $730 million paid to plaintiff s. Recently, she published the articles “New Federalism and Civil Rights Enforcement,” which she co-wrote with Alexander Reinert and James E. Pfander for the Northwestern University Law Review, and “Qualifi ed Immunity’s Boldest Lie,” for the University of Chicago Law Review. Schwartz is working on a book titled Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable (Viking Penguin). She is also the co-author of the leading casebook Civil Procedure. In 2015, she won UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the university’s highest honor for excellence in the classroom.

UCLA Law Professor Laura E. Gómez was honored with the 2021 Outstanding Scholar Award from the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation. She received the award – among the nation’s highest honors for scholarship in law or government – at the ABF’s annual banquet in February. Gómez holds the Rachel F. Moran Endowed Chair in Law and is a co-founder of UCLA Law’s Critical Race Studies program, which last year celebrated its 20th anniversary as the fi rst law school-based institutional program dedicated to advancing equality through the rigorous study of the intersection of race and the law. A renowned leader in pathbreaking scholarship that promotes social justice, Gómez holds joint appointments in UCLA’s departments of Sociology and Chicana/o and Central American studies. Her 2020 book Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism (The New Press) was featured on NPR’s list of the best books of the year. Her 2007 book Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race (NYU Press) was a landmark in the fi eld. In announcing the award and recognizing Gómez’s expertise on race, law, and society, Laura E. Gómez retired Judge Eileen A. Kato, National Chair of the ABF Fellows and Patron Fellow, said, “Laura’s work exemplifi es the ABF’s mission to expand knowledge and advance justice through rigorous empirical and interdisciplinary research. … We are honored to recognize her important scholarship with the Outstanding Scholar Award.”

The Outstanding Scholar Award has been presented since 1957 by the ABF, which is one of the world’s most eminent independent organizations for empirical and interdisciplinary study of the law. Previous honorees include UCLA Law professors Richard Abel and Kimberlé Crenshaw and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.