For The Record: Panels On Sanctuary at The Border, Telehealth, Op-eds on Displacement of Indigenous Communities and Diversity of Community-based Justice Workers and More

News 

Milczarek-Desai Joins University of Arizona Libraries Panel on Sanctuary at the Border 

On February 27, Associate Professor of Law Shefali Milczarek-Desai, joined a panel discussion at University of Arizona’s Manuel Pacheco Integrated Learning Center Lecture Hall to celebrate the opening of the Special Collections exhibit “Sanctuary: Who Belongs Here? The Search for Homeland on the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1848 to Today.” The panel included activists from the 1980’s movement and scholars studying and participating in today’s refugee-aid efforts to address the past, present and future of sanctuary on the border. 

Sklar Presents at AzSHA Arizona Health Law Conference and 2024 Rural and Public Health Policy Forum   

On February 6, Professor Tara Sklar, faculty director of the Health Law & Policy Program, presented “Closing Care Gaps Through Telehealth Policy and Broadband Access,” at the University of Arizona’s College of Public Health’s 2024 Rural and Public Health Policy Forum. 

On February 23, Sklar presented “Arizona Health Law in Review” at the Arizona Society of Healthcare Attorneys' (AzSHA) Arizona Health Law Conference and Annual Meeting in Phoenix.  

Sepe Helps Curate FC Justice, Law, and Capitalism Speakers Series 

A new University of Arizona Center for the Philosophy of Freedom Talk Series, “Justice, Law, and Capitalism - Exploring Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) from a Legal, Economic, and Philosophical Perspective,” was curated by Chester H. Smith Professor and Professor of Law and Finance Simone M. Sepe and Freedom Center Associate Director and Assistant Professor of Political Economy and Moral Science Saura Masconale. The series, running from February through April, will present an in-depth examination of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations through the insights of nationally renowned scholars. They will explore the multidisciplinary dimensions of ESG as an example of private law embodying justice concerns and address both its legitimacy and broader social and economic implications. 

Puig Book Reviewed in in the American Journal of International Law 

Evo DeConcini Professor of Law Sergio Puig’s book, “At the Margins of Globalization: Indigenous Peoples and International Economic Law,” was reviewed in the American Journal of International Law (AJIL) and AJIL Unbound by Michael Fakhri UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. 

Bublick Joins Panel at Judicial Symposium on Civil Justice Issues 

In November, Dan B. Dobbs Professor of Law, Faculty Fellow and Faculty Director of the Phoenix Program Ellen Bublick joined a panel at The Law & Economics Center (LEC) at George Mason University School of Law at the Seventeenth Annual Judicial Symposium on Civil Justice Issues. The panel titled, “Expanding Reach of Public Nuisance: What are Its Boundaries?” was moderated by Honorable Hope Cannon of the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida.  

Media 

Download of the Week: "Too Much, Too Quickly?" by Coan
Legal Theory Blog
March 2, 2024

Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Law Andrew Coan's article “Too Much, Too Quickly”  is the “Download of the Week” on Legal Theory Blog, which calls it "Important, careful, and helpful.  Highly recommended.  Download it while it's hot!”

The Diverse Landscape of Community-Based Justice Workers 
Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) 
Feb. 22, 2024 

Innovation for Justice Director Stacy Jane (’02) and Service Impact Area Lead Cayley Basler (’22) explain the history and diversity of emerging community-based justice worker efforts, which is a rapidly growing area of the civil justice ecosystem that has resulted in seven authorized programs in five jurisdictions in only three and a half years – and Arizona has been at the forefront of this movement.  

Kicking Native People Off Their Land Is a Horrible Way to Save the Planet 
The New York Times 
Feb. 20, 2024 

University of Arizona Law Regents Professor Robert A. Williams Jr., co-chair of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program, writes an op-ed on the number of environmental conservation efforts worldwide that involve the displacement of Indigenous communities. 

Law school admissions program JD-Next seeks ABA's blessing 
Reuters 
Feb. 20, 2024 

The American Bar Association's Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar was slated to approve JD-Next, an alternative law school admissions program developed by the University of Arizona Law, as a "valid and reliable" predictor of an applicant's law school grades – a designation that would enable law school admissions offices to use it without special ABA permission, as they do with both the LSAT and GRE. 

Governments can erase your medical debt for pennies on the dollar — and some are 
Stateline 
Feb. 13, 2024 

Some states and cities will use federal money to forgive millions of dollars of their residents’ medical debt. i4J Project Lead Gabriela Elizondo-Craig (’21) was heavily featured along with i4J’s Medical Debt Scorecard 

Arizona man who threatened Pelosi via voicemail asks appellate court for new trial 
Courthouse News Service 
Feb. 13, 2024 

University of Arizona law students attended a hearing of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in February , which considered the appeal of 79-year-old Steve Martis, who received a sentence of 21 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for making threats against former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. 

The laws around gig work are changing. Here’s what you need to know 
The Cooper Courier  
Feb. 12, 2024 

A new rule from the U.S. Department of Labor will make it easier for independent contractors to classify as regular employees – making them eligible for the wage and anti-discrimination protections enshrined in the Fair Labor Standards Act. University of Arizona Associate Professor of Law Shefali Milczarek-Desai, a specialist in the intersection of labor and migration, called the move a return to form in that it re-implements a six-factor test that considers the totality of a work agreement, that reverses a Trump-era assessment which only considered workers' likelihood to make or lose money from a work agreement, and how much control an employer could exert over workers 

Opinion: Lawyers and Legal Reformers are Keeping a Close Eye on AI 
Undark 
Feb. 1, 2024 

An opinion article about Lawyers and Legal Reformers are Keeping a Close Eye on AI: Will chatbots and other machine learning tools make the legal system more equitable for those seeking civil justice? The LIPA eviction calculator and the fall 2023 UX4Justice project to design a user-friendly domestic violence protection order portal for the Nevada courts were both mentioned.