The University of New Mexico School of Law faculty bring a diversity of backgrounds, professional interests and outlooks to legal education. This collection showcases the range of scholarship by current and emeritus faculty, including articles published in law journals as well as other works such as bar journal articles, briefs, testimony, op-eds, presentations, blog posts or blawgs, and interviews. Email your questions about this collection to lawlibrary[at] law.unm.edu.
Submissions from 2025
Eviction Sealing: A Lifeline in the Fight for Housing Justice, Allison Freedman
Opinion: The Constitution - not Trump - demands our allegiance, Christian G. Fritz
Mitigating AI Bias with Prompt Augmentation, Verónica C. Gonzales
TaxProf Blog Op-Ed: More on the University of Florida, the Adjunct Professor, and the Issues at Hand, Joshua E. Kastenberg
Compendium of Exhibits from the Papers of Supreme Court Justices, John P. LaVelle
Uses and Abuses of Johnson v. M’Intosh in Native American Land Rights Cases: Investigative Insights from the Indian Law Justice Files, John P. LaVelle
OpEd: Forced Disappearances in New Mexico 2025, Jennifer Moore, Antoinette M. Sedillo Lopez, and Linda Serrato
The Historic Superfund Listing of the Lukachukai Mountains Mining District, Nadine Padilla
Inclusive Workforce Development for an Equitable Low-Carbon Transition, Shannon Sanchez-Youngman, Gabriel Pacyniak, Melanie Sayuri Sonntag, and Addison Fulton
Earth Day 2025: Albuquerque, NM, Clifford Villa
Submissions from 2024
Celebrate Constitution and Citizenship Day Every Day, Not Just Sept. 17th, Maryam Ahranjani
Surviving the Megadrought, Warigia Bowman
The Mistaken Law of Mistakes of Law: Mistakes Negating Culpability Under the Model Penal Code, Scott England
The Complexity of American Federalism, Christian G. Fritz
Mitigating Algorithmic Bias: Strategies for Addressing Discrimination in Data, Sonia Gipson Rankin
Automated Stategraft: Electronic Enforcement Technology and the Economic Predation of Black Communities, Sonia Gipson Rankin, Melanie E. Moses, and Kathy Powers
Civil Procedure Update 2024 (Handout and Slide Deck), Verónica C. Gonzales and Julio C. Romero
First Amendment Fetishism, John M. Kang
A New Day for Environmental Justice at the U.S. EPA, Clifford Villa
Environmental Justice Beyond 2°C, Clifford Villa
Trial by Ambush: The Prosecution of Indians in Federal Court, Samuel Winder
Submissions from 2023
Case Note: Up In the Air: Environment Texas and the New Violation-Based Approach to Determining Standing in Environmental Citizen Suits, Noah T. Allaire
Brief of Amici Curiae Law Professors & Indian Law Experts in Support of Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, Smith v. United States, Barbara L. Creel, Marc-Tizoc Gonzaléz, and Verónica C. Gonzales
Arresting Assembly: An Argument Against Expanding Criminally Punishable Protest, Allison Freedman
Eviction Sealing Should Top New Mexico’s Legislative Housing Agenda, Allison Freedman
Balkinization Symposium on Christian G. Fritz, Monitoring American Federalism: The History of State Legislative Resistance, Christian G. Fritz
Interposition: A State-Based Constitutional Tool That Might Help Preserve American Democracy, Christian G. Fritz
Monitoring American Federalism: The Overlooked Tool of Sounding the Alarm Interposition, Christian G. Fritz
The MIDAS Touch: Atuahene's "Stategraft" and Unregulated Artificial Intelligence, Sonia Gipson Rankin
AI is here. Here’s how New Mexicans can prepare, Sonia Gipson Rankin and Melanie E. Moses
Race, Gender, and Class Conscious Approaches to Mentoring, Verónica C. Gonzales
From the DeVine Gift to the Devil's Bargains: Asian Americans in the Ideology of White Supremacy, Vinay Harpalani
The Need for an Asian American Supreme Court Justice, Vinay Harpalani
“With All Deliberate Speed”: The Ironic Demise of (and Hope for) Affirmative Action, Vinay Harpalani
Why the Actual Malice Test Should Be Eliminated, John M. Kang
Policing the Unhoused, Ernesto A. Longa
Book Review: Smokescreen: Debunking Wildfire Myths to Save Our Forests and Climate, Brenda Macías López
Keeping All The Lights On: A Roadmap to Affordable, Universal Electricity Service In the Clean Energy Transition, Gabriel Pacyniak
State Sequestration: Federal Policy Accelerates Carbon Storage, But Leaves Full Climate, Equity Protections to States, Gabriel Pacyniak
Climate, Health, and Equity Implications of Large Facility Pollution Sources in New Mexico, Gabriel Pacyniak, Angélica Ruiz, Shannon Sanchez-Youngman, and Elena Krieger
Case Note: The Lack of Teeth in Teitiota: Exploring the Limits of the Groundbreaking U.N. Human Rights Committee Case, Elena Papadakos
Masking Vulnerability: Including PPE as a Covered Service in Health Insurance, Mary Leto Pareja
New Mexico's Greenbelt Law: Disincentivizing Water Conservation Through Agricultural Tax Breaks, Annalise Porter, Robert P. Berrens, and John Fleck
Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal, Miguel A. Quintana
Achieving Climate Justice Through Land Back: An Overview of Tribal Dispossession, Land Return Efforts, and Practical Mechanisms for #LandBack, Vanessa Racehorse
Indigenous Influence on the Rights of Nature Movement, Vanessa Racehorse
Civil Procedure Update 2023, Julio C. Romero and Verónica C. Gonzales
Ad Coelum and the Design of Property Rights, Joseph A. Schremmer
Case Note: Mind the (Federal) Gap: Nuisance Claims in the Tenth Circuit to Address Climate Change, Serafina Seluja
Amicus Curiae Brief of the Navajo Nation, Paul Spruhan
Brief of Amici Curiae The Navajo Nation et al. in Support of Petitioners, Paul Spruhan
Case Note: The Ultimate Nuisance: Climate Change Comes to Federal Court in City of New York v. Chevron Corp., Dr. Jeremy Wirths
Submissions from 2022
Breaking Barriers: Women in Criminal Law (Young Lawyers Rising Podcast), Maryam Ahranjani
Sprinting a Marathon: Next Steps for Gender Equity in Criminal Law Employment, Maryam Ahranjani
The Constitutional Costs Of School Policing, Maryam Ahranjani and Natalie Saing
A Contentious Mission: Water Supply and Corps of Engineers Reservoirs, Reed D. Benson
A Model of Collegial Judicial Decision-Making: The Ransom-Montgomery Years on the New Mexico Supreme Court, Michael B. Browde and Mario E. Occhialino
Is the Court of Indian Offenses of Ute Mountain Ute Agency a Federal Agency for Purposes of the Fifth Amendment’s Double Jeopardy Clause?, Barbara L. Creel
Stated Culpability Requirements, Scott England
If You Draw It, Students Learn It: An Approach to Teaching Contracts and Other Doctrinal Courses, Paul Figueroa
Creating Lightbulb Moments: Developing Higher-Order Thinking in Family Law Classrooms Through Court Observations, Sonia Gipson Rankin
What’s (Race in) the Law Got to Do With It: Incorporating Race in Legal Curriculum, Sonia Gipson Rankin
Would You Make It to the Future? Teaching Race in an Assisted Reproductive Technologies and the Law Classroom, Sonia Gipson Rankin
Appellate Court Forum, Verónica C. Gonzales
Judicial Philosophy 2022: Ethics & Professionalism in Appellate Decision-Making, Verónica C. Gonzales
Civil Procedure Update 2022 (Handout and Slide Deck), Verónica C. Gonzales and Julio C. Romero
Asian Americans, Racial Stereotypes, and Elite University Admissions, Vinay Harpalani
Boston Globe interviews Vinay Harpalani: Supreme Court agrees to hear Harvard affirmative action case, could cause ‘huge ripple effect’ in college admissions, Vinay Harpalani, Laura Krantz, and Deirdre Fernandes
Against Political Speech, John M. Kang
The Political Urgency of Black Manhood: Frederick Douglass on Constitutional Theory, John M. Kang
The Political Urgency of Black Manhood: Frederick Douglass on Constitutional Theory, John M. Kang
Global News Toronto interviews Joshua Kastenberg: U.S. Supreme Court blocks Biden vaccine mandate, Joshua Kastenberg and Miranda Anthistle
KOB interviews Joshua Kastenberg: Business leaders react to Supreme Court blocking vaccine mandate, Joshua E. Kastenberg and Chase Golightly
Moving Law Schools Forward by Design: Designing Law School Curricula to Transfer Learning from Classroom Theory to Clinical Practice and Beyond, April Land and Aliza Organick
Book Review: Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future, J. Spenser Lotz
A Unifying Doctrine of Subsurface Property Rights, Joseph A. Schremmer
Regulating Natural Gas Venting and Flaring as Waste: A Review of the New Mexico Approach, Joseph A. Schremmer
Waste and the Governance of Private and Public Property, Joseph A. Schremmer and Tara K. Righetti
Tribal Labor and Employment Law: The Evolution of the Navajo Preference in Employment Act, Paul Spruhan
Adapting To a 4°C World, Clifford Villa
Beyond Bake Sales: Environmental Justice Through Superfund Removal Actions, Clifford Villa
Don't Blame the Flint River, Clifford Villa
No “Box to be Checked”: Environmental Justice in Modern Legal Practice, Clifford J. Villa
Book Review: The Development of the Law of the Sea Convention: The Role of International Courts and Tribunals, Kalista Wilson
Submissions from 2021
Pulling Back the Curtain: A Follow-Up Report from the ABA Criminal Justice Section Women in Criminal Justice Task Force, Maryam Ahranjani
School "Safety" Measures Jump Constitutional Guardrails, Maryam Ahranjani
The Role of Lawyers in Bridging the Gap between the Robust Federal Rights to Education and Relatively Low Education Outcomes in Guatemala, Maryam Ahranjani
Why Are Women Lawyers Underrepresented in Criminal Justice?, Maryam Ahranjani
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 and Katherine Lewin
KRWG interviews Maryam Ahranjani, Doña Ana County Mandatory Vaccination Policy Contested, Maryam Ahranjani and Madison Staten
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, and Randolph H. Barnhouse
Servitudes Done "Proper"ly: Propriety, Not Contract Law, Elizabeth Elia
When Imitation Is Not Flattery: Addressing Cultural Exploitation in Guatemala Through a Sui Generis Model, Paul Figueroa
Rethinking The PLRA: The Resiliency of Injunctive Practice And Why It’s Not Enough, Allison Freedman
BBC World News interviews Sonia Gipson Rankin: Biden vaccine mandate blocked, Sonia Gipson Rankin
BBC World News interviews Sonia Gipson Rankin: Verdict of trial in murder of Ahmaud Arbery, Sonia Gipson Rankin
Technological Tethereds: Potential Impact of Untrustworthy Artificial Intelligence in Criminal Justice Risk Assessment Instruments, Sonia M. Gipson Rankin