Shaakirrah R. Sanders joined the University of Idaho College of Law as an associate professor in June 2011. Professor Sanders teaches Constitutional Law I & II, Criminal Procedure, Advanced Criminal Procedure, and the First Amendment. She also co-coaches the National Moot Court Competition Boise Team and serves as faculty advisor for the crit, a student-edited critical legal studies journal. In 2014, Professor Sanders was named Faculty Advisor of the Year by the Idaho Law Review.

Professor Sanders’s scholarship focuses on felony sentencing reform; civil and crimi­nal jury trial rights; LGBTQ equality; and “ag-gag” legislation. Her work has appeared in the Hastings Law Journal, the William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, and the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform. Professor Sanders also contributed commentary for an edited collection entitled Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court. The collection will be published by the Cambridge University Press in 2016.

Professor Sanders recently presented at The Present and Future of Civil Rights Movements: Race and Reform in 21st Century America at the Duke Law School. She also presented at the Widener Law Journal’s 2015 symposium on the death penalty and criminal sentencing reform in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Professor Sanders will soon participate in the University of Detroit Mercy Law Review’s 2016 centennial symposium on the past, present, and future of the city of Detroit. She has also participated in faculty colloquia at the University of Washington School of Law and Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.

Professor Sanders blogs for Casetext and has provided guest commentary in the Idaho Statesman. She has contributed to Idaho related news stories in national publications such as The New York Times, Associated Press, and Al Jazeera America. She has also contributed to stories in local and regional news publications, including The Pacific Northwest Inlander, The Spokane Review, and the Boise Weekly. Professor Sanders has provided legal commentary for broadcasts appearing on Northwest Public Radio; Idaho Public Radio; Boise State Public Radio; Lewiston’s KLEW News 3; and Boise’s KTVB News 7; KITV News 9; and KBOI News 2. She regularly presents CLE, university, and public service presentations related to her areas of law teaching and scholarly interests.

Prior to joining the College of Law, Professor Sanders served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Ivan L.R. Lemelle in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and the Honorable Lavenski R. Smith in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. She practiced at the Public Defender Association in Seattle, Washington, the Seattle office of K&L Gates, and the New Orleans office of Locke Lord. Professor Sanders also taught as a visiting professor at Seattle University School of Law and as an adjunct professor at the William H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas—Little Rock.

Professor Sanders received a J.D. from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. She served as Index/Casenote Editor on the Loyola Law Review and was named a William Crowe Scholar upon graduation. In 2004, Professor Sanders was named a Pegasus Scholar by the American Inns of Court and the Honorable Society of the Inner Temple in London, England. She received a B.S. in Psychology from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Professor Sanders is admitted to practice in the state courts of Louisiana, New York, and Washington, as well as various federal district and circuit courts.

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• Confrontation rights at felony sentencing
• Criminal and civil jury trial rights
• Equal protection: race, gender, and sexuality
• Substantive due process: marriage, family autonomy, and reproductive freedom
• First Amendment: speech, press, association and religious freedom
• Voting rights

• Commentary on United States v. Morrison, Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court, (Cambridge University Press 2016) (forthcoming)
• The Impact of “Ag-Gag” Legislation on the Detroit Urban Farmer, 93 U. Det. Mercy L. Rev. _____ (2016) (Centennial Symposium on the Past, Present, and Future of the City of Detroit) (forthcoming)
• The Value of Confrontation as a Felony Sentencing Right, 25 Widener L.J. _____ (2016) (Symposium on the Death Penalty and Criminal Sentencing Reform) (forthcoming)
• Uncapping Compensation in the Gore Due Process Analysis, 24 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 37 (2015).
• Unbranding Confrontation as Only a Trial Right, 65 Hastings L.J. 1257 (2014)
• Making the Right Call for Confrontation at Felony Sentencing, 47 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 791 (2014)
• Michigan’s Duty to Provide Access to Health Care, 6 Wayne J.L. Soc’y 1 (2005)
• The Cyclical Nature of Divorce in the Western Legal Tradition, 50 Loy. L. Rev. 407 (2004)
• Twenty-Five Years of a Divided Court and Nation: Conflicting Views of Affirmative Action and Reverse Discrimination, 26 U. Ark. Little Rock L. Rev. 61 (2003)
• Casenote, Putting an End to the Speculative Jury: Louisiana v. Haddad, 45 Loy. L. Rev. 783 (1999)

• Loyola Law Review Faculty Advisor of the Year (2014)
• Loren Miller Bar Association Young Lawyer of the Year Award (2008)
• American Inn of Court/Honorable Society of the Inner Temple Pegasus Scholar (2004)
• Loyola University School of Law William Crowe Scholar (2001)
• Loyola Law Review Editorial Board Award for Outstanding Dedication and Service (1999-2000)