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Catch up on recent University of Arizona Law faculty accomplishments

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News  

Milczarek-Desai Featured in De Jure Journal 

The De Jure Journal featured Professor Shefali Milczarek-Desai, associate professor of law and co-director of the Bacon Immigration Law and Policy Program, in its special Law and Employment issue in July. 

The interview, on “Lessons from the Frontlines: Exploring Child and Im/migrant Workers’ Rights,” discussed her advocacy and scholarship, as well as advice for law students considering careers in im/migration. 

The journal is an international student-edited and peer-reviewed law journal published in the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens under the auspices of the European Law Students’ Association Athens (ELSA Athens). 

Media 

A federal proposal aims to strike down the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases, undoing a key protection first established in 2009. In cities already facing extreme heat, such as Phoenix, experts caution that the risks to public health could be severe. Desmond and Jean Ruley Kearns Professor of Law Professor Stephanie Stern was interviewed to discuss the potential fallout of this change. 

The Trump administration is proposing to roll back a key climate protection rule that allows the EPA to limit harmful greenhouse gas emissions. In Phoenix—the nation’s hottest big city—experts warn this could have life-threatening impacts. Desmond and Jean Ruley Kearns Professor of Law Professor Stephanie Stern is interviewed.  

Ralph W. Bilby Professor of Law Marc Miller co-authors an opinion piece on how citizen input has a vital role in protecting land from environmental harm in projects that require federal permitting. 

The Arkansas Appellate Spectator 
Summer Break 2025 — part three 
August 7, 2025 

A blog about appellate practice and procedure in Arkansas and beyond includes the the most recent issue of The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process as a summer review and writes it “deserves notice.” 

Arizona voters enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution last November, but legal challenges and legislative efforts to reverse that result continue, as predicted at the time by Mary Anne Richey Professor Emerita of Law Barbara Atwood 

When President Trump signed a law adding work requirements for some Medicaid recipients, experts say he may have undercut lawmakers in at least 14 states, including Arizona, who were designing their own plans. States still can tweak their Medicaid programs through what are known as demonstration waivers, which are designed to test new ideas in policy gray areas, subject to federal approval. Professor Tara Sklar, faculty director of the Health Law & Policy Program, weighs in.  

Coan on Relative Stare Decisis 
Legal Theory Blog 
July 31, 2025 

Milton O. Riepe Chair in Constitutional Law and Director of the William H. Rehnquist Center on the Constitutional Structures of Government Andrew Coan has posted Relative Stare Decisis on SSRN and was highly recommended by Legal Theory Blog.  

Professor Keith Richotte, director of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program, discusses his new book, “The Worst Trickster Story Ever Told.” 

Coffee importers await effects of tariffs 
China Daily 
July 29, 2025 

The U.S. imported around 1.6 million metric tons of coffee in 2024, according to the Department of Agriculture. In May, the average price of one pound of ground roast coffee ran $7.93, higher than in 2024 when it was $5.99, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show. Samuel M. Fegtly Professor Emeritus David Gantz is interviewed.  

By embedding students into tech-enabled legal services and building scalable, human-centered solutions, legal education programs have become engines for innovation. The Innovation for Justice program is included.   
 
Treaties more than a century old provide both guidance and constraints 
Native America Calling 
July 24, 2025 

The Crow Tribe is marking the 200th anniversary of their treaty with the United States. It is a document whose limits have been tested over that time but still defines the tribe’s relationship with the federal government. This year also marks 170 years since the treaty ratifying the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indians’ official relationship with the U.S. Professor Heather Whiteman Runs Him, associate clinical professor and the director of the Tribal Justice Clinic, joins others to examine these important historical and legal milestones and how they fit in with the extensive and complicated history of treaties. 

Agencies are rewriting their National Environmental Policy Act regulations, potentially muting public input and curtailing environmental reviews for everything from new railroads to oil wells. The broad changes, enacted by at least four agencies, will narrow the scope of environmental analyses, cut down on public comment periods and speed up environmental permitting. At the Interior Department, the changes include cutting close to one-sixth of the regulations implementing NEPA and switching most of the remaining rules to less-stringent guidelines. Professor of Law Justin Pidot, Ashby Lohse Chair in Water & Natural Resources and co-director of the Environmental Law Program, who served as general counsel for CEQ during the Biden administration, is interviewed.