Law Commons^™

'That Name Is Dead To Me': Reforming Name Change Laws To Protect Transgender And Nonbinary Youth, Sarah Steadman

Faculty Scholarship

For transgender and some nonbinary youth, living under a chosen name is a first step toward becoming their authentic selves. For these youth, a name change is powerful; it allows them to choose a name that matches their gender identity. They consider their birth name to be a distressing “dead” name - one that they cannot relate to and need to bury.

Using one’s chosen name decreases suicidality among transgender youth who face many challenges, including family rejection and other severe mental health stressors. Transgender and nonbinary youth can only require others to use their chosen names after obtaining a …

Civil Procedure Update 2021: New Mexico Annual Judicial Conclave, Verónica Gonzales-Zamora

Faculty Scholarship

These materials are part of a presentation on civil procedure given to magistrate, district, appellate, and tribal court judges, justices, and staff attorneys in New Mexico courts. These materials include the language of approved and proposed amendments to the state and federal rules of civil procedure as well as summaries of relevant appellate cases issued by the New Mexico Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Supreme Court of the Navajo Nation between May 1, 2021 to September 1, 2021.

When Engineering Solutions Cause Legal Problems: The Developing Field Of Reservoir Rights And Liabilities, Joseph A. Schremmer

Faculty Scholarship

For well over a decade, the pages of this Quarterly have undoubtedly been filled with discussions of cutting-edge drilling and completion technologies. This article discusses some of the problems that all these engineering solutions have caused for the law of oil and gas. It begins in Part II with a brief outline of how the law slowly develops through the common law process and illustrates how that process responds, also slowly, to rapid technological and social changes, like the unconventional hydrocarbon revolution. Part III then surveys how courts have begun to reform the legal rights and remedies in common reservoirs …

Rethinking The Plra: The Resiliency Of Injunctive Practice And Why It’S Not Enough, Allison Freedman

Faculty Scholarship

During the latter part of the twentieth century, prison populations in the United States increased exponentially and the nation became notorious for mass incarceration. Despite what many viewed as a broken prison system, in 1996 Congress passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act (“PLRA”), with the avowed purpose of hindering prisoners and their advocates from bringing civil rights actions to challenge prison conditions, laws, and policies. To accomplish this, Congress curbed courts’ most powerful remedial tool—injunctive relief. As a result, early scholarship predicted that injunctive practice would become a useless tool in prison reform litigation.

Instead, twenty-five years after Congress passed …

Brief For The National Stripper Well Association As Amicus Curiae, L. Ruth Fawcett Tr. V. Oil Producers, Inc. Of Kansas, Joseph A. Schremmer, Charles C. Steincamp

Faculty Scholarship

In its briefings, the Class in this appeal, in spite of the evidence, evokes the myth of a great conspiracy between operators and marketers, and it advances a theory that threatens impermissible economic and underground waste of natural gas resources. The language of the parties' oil and gas leases, on the other hand, sets up bargained-for arrangement that enables the parties to share in the benefits of stripper gas production and promotes conservation of the state's natural gas reserves.

Brief For American Indian Law Scholars As Amicus Curiae, Stephen C., Et Al V. Bureau Of Indian Education, Et Al.,, Barbara L. Creel, Tierra N. Marks, Randolph H. Barnhouse

Faculty Scholarship

Indian Civil Rights/Education Lawsuit

View this and other court documents at Turtle Talk.

Congress’s declared federal policy is “to fulfill the Federal Government’s unique and continuing trust relationship with and responsibility to the Indian people for the education of Indian children.” 25 U.S.C. § 2000. This federal policy is the touchstone of the federal government’s trust obligation to Indian families and their children. When the BIA (through the BIE) fails to protect the rights of Indian children to “educational opportunities that equal or exceed those for all other students in the United States,” courts have a vital role to …

The Harvard Crimson Interviews Vinay Harpalani: Supreme Court Delays Decision On Reviewing Harvard Admissions Lawsuit, Vinay Harpalani, Vivi E. Lu, Dekyi T. Tsotsong

Faculty Scholarship

Vinay Harpalani, a law professor at the University of New Mexico, said SCOTUS’ delay might mean it is “a little bit less likely” to take the case.

“A lot of experts, including me, didn’t think the court was going to grant cert on this because there’s a lot of other cases coming up,” he said.

“It does seem to indicate that there are justices on the fence a bit who want to know more and are willing to delay the case, because we don’t know when the Solicitor General will file their briefs,” Harpalani said.

Harpalani said the Solicitor General’s …

Anomalous Anatomies: How The Tsa Should Screen For Transgender People, Karissa J. Kang, John M. Kang

Faculty Scholarship

A transgender person faces obstacles trying to negotiate a gender-binary world. Going through a TSA checkpoint is no different. A substantial number of transgender persons have reported that they were detained and examined because they were transgender.1 Why this situation persists and what policy reforms should be implemented to alleviate it are the subjects of this Essay. This Essay is devoted mainly to the theme of transgender rights, rather than race, a central theme of the symposium in which this Essay appears. Given the relatively small pool of transgender individuals for whom data is available, this Essay is unable to …

Understanding The Nuances: Diversity Among Asian American Pacific Islanders, Vinay Harpalani

Faculty Scholarship

Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month recognizes the collective contributions of all AAPIs, but it is also an opportunity to move beyond the collective and highlight the nuanced differences between various AAPI groups. Lumping together all of these groups, without appreciation for their unique histories, experiences, and challenges, can obscure important differences, which in turn reinforces stereotypes. For example, although the “model minority” stereotype depicts AAPIs as high academic achievers from relatively privileged socioeconomic backgrounds, this is only accurate for a subset of the AAPI population. Higher education institutions in particular should highlight the vast diversity among AAPIs, as …

Building Asian American And Black Solidarity For Racial Justice In Today’S America, Vinay Harpalani, Sunu P. Chandy, Sholanna Lewis, Frank H. Wu

Faculty Scholarship

About the Panel: Although there have been tensions, including those tied to colorism, between the Asian American and Pacific Islander and Black communities in America, there has been an equally long history of mutual support and collaboration between these two communities. How does anti-Blackness in the AAPI community impact the work of building solidarity with Black activists? In this conversation, we highlight our common ground so that Asian American and Black social justice communities can push forward our collective needs to fight racial injustice and other forms of discrimination in this country.

The Stress Test: Searching For Wellbeing In Law School, Annie Swift

Student Published Scholarship

Swift hosted a related podcast episode “A Conversation About Well-Being in Law School”. In this episode, she interviewed Dr. Katie Young, PhD, J.D., and professor of sociology at UM Amherst and author of "How to be (Sort Of) Happy in Law School."

Brownfields Cleanup: A Look Back And Ahead Toward Superfund Authority, Clifford Villa

Faculty Scholarship

Did you know that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, through the Superfund program within each of the ten regional offices across the United States, has millions of dollars to spend each year for cleaning up contaminated sites that are not designated “Superfund” sites? Not many people seem to know that, even lawyers who practice in environmental law, or even law professors who teach it. If these elite folks do not know that, then how would ordinary community members know that, people with busy lives who don’t do Superfund for a living? The short answer is, they probably don’t know either.

Civil Procedure Update 2021 (Handout And Slide Deck), Verónica Gonzales-Zamora, Julio C. Romero

Faculty Scholarship

This presentation aims to 1) review recent amendments to the state and federal rules of civil procedure; 2) help you understand the impact of recent federal and state published opinions interpreting and applying the rules of civil procedure; and 3) assess your understanding of the updates.

Diverse Magazine Interviews Sonia Gipson-Rankin: Law Schools Respond To The Movement For Social Justice, Sonia Gipson Rankin, Pearl Stewart

Faculty Scholarship

At the University of New Mexico Law School, Professor Sonia Gipson Rankin describes three activities organized in spring 2020 to address the national protest movement – a virtual teach-in; a social justice book club; and a startup student organization, Law Students for Equity & Inclusion. The teach-in included a panel of professors and students who discussed police killings of African Americans, the U.S. history of racial violence, protest and related topics.

Rankin notes that relevant courses such as “Race and the Law,” “Indian Law” and “Refugee Law” were regularly being offered at the UNM School of Law for decades and …

The Covid Ceiling: Super-Moms Are Struggling, Verónica Gonzales-Zamora

Faculty Scholarship

COVID Ceiling is the unique combination of identity, discipline, and academic work requirements with care crisis and public health crisis that is contributing to the current and soon larger wave of mental health crises.

Technological Tethereds: Potential Impact Of Untrustworthy Artificial Intelligence In Criminal Justice Risk Assessment Instruments, Sonia M. Gipson Rankin

Faculty Scholarship

Issues of racial inequality and violence are front and center in today’s society, as are issues surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). This Article, written by a law professor who is also a computer scientist, takes a deep dive into understanding how and why hacked and rogue AI creates unlawful and unfair outcomes, particularly for persons of color.

Black Americans are disproportionally featured in criminal justice, and their stories are obfuscated. The seemingly endless back-to-back murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and heartbreakingly countless others have finally shaken the United States from its slumbering journey towards intentional criminal justice …

When Imitation Is Not Flattery: Addressing Cultural Exploitation In Guatemala Through A Sui Generis Model, Paul Figueroa

Faculty Scholarship

Indigenous Guatemalan weavers are fighting for intellectual property laws that better protect their designs and other cultural expressions. The exploitation and appropriation by local and international companies has negatively affected the weavers’ livelihoods and resulted in culturally inappropriate uses of spiritual and traditional symbols. Adhering to Western ideals of individual creativity and utility, intellectual property laws in most of the world (including Guatemala) are not suited to protect indigenous creations. To address this legal gap, some countries have adopted sui generis legal regimes that align with communal notions of creation, ownership and stewardship found in indigenous knowledge systems. Based on …

Bad Apples Or A Rotten Tree: Ameliorating The Double Pandemic Of Covid-19 And Racial Economic Inequality, Nathalie Martin

Faculty Scholarship

Black Lives Matter signs pepper our rural, middle class neighborhood. The lawn signs raise a fundamental question: if Black Lives Matter, what will it take to reverse the longstanding trend that has left many dead and so many others, perhaps all others, suffering? What will it take to create some semblance of equality and equity across racial lines in America?

Part I of this essay discusses race and Covid 19. It reviews and updates statistics on Covid deaths and race, and discusses some of the reasons for the racial disparities in Covid deaths. Part II briefly reviews the stratification of …

Can “Asians” Truly Be Americans?, Vinay Harpalani

Faculty Scholarship

Recent, tragic events have brought more attention to hate and bias crimes against Asian Americans. It is important to address these crimes and prevent them in the future, but the discourse on Asian Americans should not end there. Many non-Asian Americans are unaware or only superficially aware of the vast diversity that exists among us, along with the challenges posed by that diversity. Some have basic knowledge of the immigration and exclusion of Asian Americans, the internment of Japanese Americans which was upheld in Korematsu v. United States, and the “model minority stereotype”, but these are Asian Americans 101. This …

Reducing The Wealth Gap Through Fintech 'Advances' In Consumer Banking And Lending, Nathalie Martin, Pamela Foohey

Faculty Scholarship

Research shows that Black, Latinx, and other minorities pay more for credit and banking services, and that wealth accumulation differs starkly between their households and white households. The link between debt inequality and the wealth gap, however, remains less thoroughly explored, particularly in light of new credit products and debt-like banking services, such as early wage access and other fintech innovations. These innovations both hold the promise of reducing racial and ethnic disparities in lending and bring concerns that they may be exploited in ways that perpetuate inequality. They also come at a time when policy makers are considering how …

Why Are Women Lawyers Underrepresented In Criminal Justice?, Maryam Ahranjani

Faculty Scholarship

When the ABA’s Criminal Justice Section (CJS) created the Women in Criminal Justice Task Force (TF) in 2019, we knew that women lawyers in the criminal sector were underrepresented in the workforce, but we did not know why. Thus, the TF set out to investigate the challenges facing women criminal lawyers in hiring, retention, and promotion. By assembling a group of women with diverse lived and professional experiences, cochairs Professor Carla Laroche and Tina Luongo sought to elevate women’s voices previously not heard by CJS and develop and promote strategies to achieve full inclusion of those voices in CJS, the …

Voice Of America Interviews Vinay Harpalani, 大學招生該不該考慮種族因素？哈佛“歧視亞裔”案上訴最高法院 (Should College Admissions Consider Racial Factors? Harvard "Discrimination Against Asians" Case Appealed To The Supreme Court), Vinay Harpalani, Mo Yu

Faculty Scholarship

However, Vinay Harpalani, a law professor at the University of New Mexico in the United States, believes that the Supreme Court will not accept it.

He said that the Supreme Court had just made a ruling on a similar issue five years ago. “It’s rare to reconsider this issue so quickly.” He said that although the previous case involved public universities and Article 14 of the Constitution. The amendment, this time involves private universities and Article 6 of the Civil Rights Law, but the legal principles are also equal protection clauses.

He also said that the "Student Fair Admissions Organization" …

Krwg Interviews Maryam Ahranjani, Doña Ana County Mandatory Vaccination Policy Contested, Maryam Ahranjani, Madison Staten

Faculty Scholarship

Maryam Ahranjani, an associate professor of law at the University of New Mexico, says government officials can mandate vaccination for their employees.

“The law is pretty clear that in using the state's police power to regulate for the health, safety and welfare of its citizens, an employer can require vaccinations,” Ahranjani said.

Ahranjani pointed to Jacobson v. Massachusetts, a 1905 Supreme Court Case that ruled mandatory vaccinations constitutional. But she says that just because she believes employers can require vaccinations doesn’t mean it’s the best solution.

“There's some strong arguments for why it's probably not the best approach,” Ahranjani said. …

Santa Fe Reporter Interviews Maryam Ahranjani: Change Of Venue, District Court Judge To Consider Defense’S Argument That A Fair Trial In The Slaying Of Basketball Star Is Impossible In Santa Fe, Maryam Ahranjani, Katherine Lewin

Faculty Scholarship

Maryam Ahranjani, a criminal law professor at the University of New Mexico, concedes that the "accessibility" of information is much different now than when the Founding Fathers ratified the Sixth Amendment (the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury), but that the original idea of that section of the Constitution stemmed from the belief trials are best held in the community in which they occurred.

"Certainly judges are willing to change venues sometimes, consistent with that original idea that the local community is what defines the crime and so they're the ones who should determine whether …

Harvard Crimson Interviews Vinay Harpalani, Students For Fair Admissions Petitions Scotus To Take Up Suit Against Harvard’S Race-Conscious Admissions, Vinay Harpalani, Vivi E. Lu

Faculty Scholarship

University of New Mexico law professor Vinay Harpalani and Dana N. Thompson-Dorsey, chair of education innovation at the University of South Florida, told the Crimson in January that if the Supreme Court were to take up the case, the practice of affirmative action could be endangered, noting the court’s conservative composition.

Albuquerque Journal Interviews Gabriel Pacyniak, Bill Would Help Indebted Utility Customers, Gabriel Pacyniak, Kevin Robinson-Avila

Faculty Scholarship

Bill supporters, however, say only the Legislature can authorize debt forgiveness. And that’s critical for low-income households whose individual arrears now range from $400 to $1,000 and counting as the pandemic stretches on, creating a “disconnection cliff” that will kick in when the moratorium ends, said Gabe Pacyniak, a University of New Mexico associate law professor who helped draft the bill.

“Customers will have to pay off all their arrears or be disconnected,” Pacyniak said. “… This gives low-income consumers time to pay their bills, plus assistance through debt forgiveness to dig themselves out of the hole they’re now in.”

Harvard Crimson Interviews Vinay Harpalani: Justice Department Drops Yale Admissions Lawsuit, Signifying Likely Shift In Harvard Suit, Vinay Harpalani, Raquel Coronell Uribe, Jasper Goodman

Faculty Scholarship

The Department of Justice on Wednesday dropped a lawsuit against Yale alleging discrimination in its admissions practices. Experts said it indicated the DOJ will likely withdraw support for a similar suit against Harvard.

Vinay Harpalani, a law professor at the University of New Mexico, said he thinks such a move would make it “slightly less likely” that the court will hear the case, “if anything.”

“It’s sending a bit of a message that the Biden administration’s DOJ is on the side of affirmative action, they’re on the side of Harvard, they’re going to help make these arguments. And the political …

California V. Texas: The Role Of Congressional Procedure In Severability Doctrine, Mary Leto Pareja

Faculty Scholarship

The United States Supreme Court is once again considering a case that challenges the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). In this round of litigation, plaintiffs argue that because Congress lowered the individual mandate tax penalty to zero in the 2017 Tax Act that makes the individual mandate itself unconstitutional and that, furthermore, the individual mandate cannot be severed from the rest of the ACA. The District Court agreed with the plaintiffs and struck down the entire ACA, and the Supreme Court granted cert to hear this momentous question. A decision is expected by summer of 2021.

The ACA …

“Trumping” Affirmative Action, Vinay Harpalani

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay examines the Trump administration’s actions to eliminate affirmative action, along with the broader ramifications of these actions. While former-President Trump’s judicial appointments have garnered much attention, the Essay focuses on the actions of his Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division. It lays out the Department of Justice’s investigations of Harvard and Yale, highlighting how they have augmented recent lawsuits challenging race-conscious admissions policies by Students for Fair Admissions. It considers the timing of the DOJ’s actions, particularly with respect to Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College. It examines the strategies used by …

Harvard Crimson Interviews Vinay Harpalani: ‘Complete Switch In Position’: Legal Experts Say Biden Likely To Back Harvard In Race-Conscious Admissions Suit, Vinay Harpalani, Benjamin L. Fu, Vivi E. Lu

Faculty Scholarship

Many education and legal experts expect President-elect Joe Biden's Justice Department will extend support to universities — including Harvard — currently embroiled in legal challenges from anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions.

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Vinay Harpalani, a law professor at the University of New Mexico, said he believes the Department of Justice will reverse course and file an amicus brief in support of Harvard if the case is appealed even further.

“If the case goes to the U.S. Supreme Court, I would expect the Biden administration to file an amicus brief in favor of Harvard — so complete switch in …