Immigration Law Experts

American University Washington College of Law Experts Available to Comment on the Supreme Court Review of the Arizona Immigration Law

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

To arrange interviews, please contact Megan Smith, (202) 274-4276.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the United States Supreme Court prepares to review Arizona’s appeal of a ruling that said the state was interfering with the federal government’s authority over immigration policy in using local police and prosecutors to crack down on illegal immigration, American University Washington College of Law’s immigration law and constitutional law experts are available to comment on all aspects of this issue.

Immigration

Jayesh Rathod - Immigration law & policy

Jayesh Rathod, assistant professor of law and director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic, researches and teaches the areas of immigrants’ rights, labor and employment, occupational safety and health, and the intersection of law and organizing.  Prior to joining the faculty, he was a Staff Attorney at CASA of Maryland, representing low-wage immigrant workers on employment law and immigration matters, and participating in worker education, organizing, and advocacy efforts. He also practiced in the litigation section at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering LLP, and was law clerk to the Honorable Louis F. Oberdorfer, of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Over the course of his career, he has worked with numerous non-governmental organizations to advance the civil and human rights of communities in the United States and abroad.

Elizabeth Keyes - Immigration law & policy

Elizabeth Keyes, practitioner-in-residence in the law school's Immigrant Justice Clinic, has served as a supervising attorney at WEAVE (Women Empowered Against Violence) where she provided legal services to immigrant survivors of domestic violence; she assisted dozens of immigrant domestic violence survivors with their protection order, divorce, custody and child support cases, as well as working the many immigration remedies available to these clients. Professor Keyes spent three years as a Skadden fellow and staff attorney at CASA of Maryland, working on the civil and immigration aspects of labor exploitation cases, litigating in state, federal and immigration courts, while focusing particularly on trafficked domestic workers and their exploitation by diplomats. Before law school, she spent several years working on African policy and development issues with Catholic Relief Services, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program throughout Africa.

Constitutional Law

Stephen Vladeck - Constitutional law, federal and state jurisdiction

Stephen Vladeck, professor of law and associate dean for scholarship, teaches and researches federal jurisdiction, national security law, constitutional law (especially the separation of powers), and international criminal law. A nationally recognized expert on the role of the federal courts in the war on terrorism, he was part of the legal team that successfully challenged the Bush Administration’s use of military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and has co-authored amicus briefs in a host of other lawsuits challenging the U.S. government’s surveillance and detention of terrorism suspects. Vladeck has also drafted reports on related issues for a number of organizations, including the First Amendment Center, the Constitution Project, and the ABA’s Standing Committee on Law and National Security, and he is a senior editor of the peer-reviewed Journal of National Security Law and Policy.

Stephen Wermiel - Supreme Court, constitutional law

Stephen Wermiel is a fellow in law and government at American University Washington College of Law, where he teaches Constitutional Law, First Amendment, Media Law and a seminar on the workings of the U.S. Supreme Court. He is an expert on the life and career of Justice William J. Brennan and co-author of the recently published biography Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion. Wermiel holds expertise in the Supreme Court, having covered the court for the Wall Street Journal from 1979 until 1991. During his 12-year tenure at the Journal, he covered and interpreted more than 1,300 Supreme Court decisions and analyzed trends on a broad array of legal issues. Early in his career, Wermiel was a Washington correspondent for the Boston Globe. He is currently chairman of the editorial board of Human Rights, the magazine of the American Bar Association's Individual Rights & Responsibilities Section, and a member of the editorial board of Communications Lawyer, the journal of the ABA's Forum on Communications Law.

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American University Washington College of Law

In 1896, American University Washington College of Law became the first law school in the country founded by women. More than 100 years since its founding, this law school community is grounded in the values of equality, diversity, and intellectual rigor. The law school's nationally and internationally recognized programs (in clinical legal education, trial advocacy, international law, and intellectual property to name a few) and dedicated faculty provide its 1700 JD, LL.M., and SJD students with the critical skills and values to have an immediate impact as students and as graduates, in Washington, DC and around the world. For more information, visit wcl.american.edu.