Professor Shalini Bhargava Ray recently wrote a SCOTUS opinion analysis titled The demise of rights-protective statutory interpretation for detained immigrants and the rise of “piecemeal” textualism. Read the full opinion piece on SCOTUSblog. She also spoke about this topic on a recent SCOTUStalk podcast. Listen to the conversation on SCOTUSblog as well.
Professor Joyce Vance recently coauthored an opinion piece titled The Jan. 6 Hearings Spotlight Congress. But Witnesses are the Real Stars on MSNBC News. Read the full article here.
Professor Joyce Vance was recently quoted in an article titled Intensifying Inquiry Into Alternate Electors Focuses on Trump Lawyers. The full piece can be read on The New York Times website.
Lawyers of Color, a nonprofit devoted to promoting diversity in the legal profession, recently ranked the University of Alabama School of Law 29th among the nation’s best law schools for Black students. The rankings were based on several factors including bar passage rate, big law associate placement, federal and state clerkships, distinguished Black alumni, tuition costs, scholarship awards, JD required job placement, and the number of JDs awarded to Black graduates. Read about the methodology and view the full ranking list on the Lawyers of Color website.
Professor Fred Vars recently coauthored an opinion piece titled New York’s Red-Flag Law Failed in Buffalo. Here’s How to Fix It in The Washington Post. Read the full article online.
Professor Casey E. Faucon published an article titled Assessing Amateurism in College Sports in Volume 79, Issue 1 of the Washington and Lee Law Review. Read the full journal article here.
Professor Amy F. Kimpel published an article titled Paying For a Clean Record in Volume 112, Issue 3 of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. Read the full article here.
Professor Fred Vars coauthored a piece titled Time To Live: Safer Gun Safes and Smarter Smart Guns on the Duke Center for Firearms Law site. Read the full article online.
Professor Joyce Vance coauthored an op-ed titled Ant-trans Laws Make Everyone Less Safe in The Washington Post. Read the full article online.
On Sunday, May 8, The University of Alabama School of Law hosted the 2022 Alabama Law Commencement Ceremony at Coleman Coliseum. During the celebration, the School of Law awarded Juris Doctor Degrees to 133 students—including four J.D. students who took joint degrees in Business Administration, Social Work, or Civil Engineering and seven J.D. students who also took an LL.M (Master of Laws Degree) in Taxation or Business Transactions. An additional 11 students were awarded LL.M degrees in Taxation or Business Transactions.
The commencement address was given by attorney, child advocate, and nationally renowned motivational speaker, Liz Huntley—author of the memoir More than a Bird, a story of how one can triumph in the face of adversity.
“This is just a stepping stone. It is not your final destination,” said Huntley. “You are the gatekeepers of liberty and justice. You have been given a gift—the gift and ability to think like a lawyer and serve so many. The question is, what are you going to do with what you have?”
Early in her speech, Huntley highlighted the uniqueness of the 2022 Commencement Ceremony—which fell on the 50th Anniversary of the graduation of the first Black Law students from the University of Alabama School of Law. In a historic moment in juxtaposition to the 50th Anniversary, Dean Mark E. Brandon, by resolution of the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System, presented civil rights pioneer and attorney Fred David Gray with an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree.
Among the many notable civil rights icons Gray represented—including Rosa Parks and other plaintiffs in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and participants in the Selma March—he successfully represented Vivian Malone and James Hood in their quest to enroll at The University of Alabama in 1963, playing an indispensable role in the legal desegregation of public education in Alabama and throughout the United States.
Despite being an Alabama native and holding true to a lifelong commitment to civil rights efforts in Alabama and in the South, Gray earned his Juris Doctorate from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio, because there wasn’t a law school in the state of Alabama at the time — including the University of Alabama — that would accept African American students. In fact, the State of Alabama would pay the tuition of Black students (including Mr. Gray) to study law elsewhere. Read more about the presentation of the honorary degree to Mr. Gray in this story.
For anyone who was unable to attend the graduation ceremony, a full video recording of the 2022 Alabama Law Commencement Ceremony is available on the Law School’s website.
