Shaakirrah Sanders

Shaakirrah R. Sanders teaches courses related to Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, and the First Amendment. In 2018, she became the first African American and second person of color to achieve the rank of full professor at the University of Idaho and its College of Law. Professor Sanders has taught as a visiting professor at Penn State Law University Park (spring 2019), Brooklyn Law School (spring 2021-virtual & spring 2022-physical), and Louisiana State University (fall 2021-virtual). She will visit Penn State Dickinson Law during the 2022-23 academic year.

Professor Sanders publishes scholarship on felony sentencing reform; civil and criminal jury trial rights; religious freedom; and agriculture security or “ag-gag” legislation. Among other publications, her work has or will appear in Washington and Lee Law Review (2023); Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law (2022); Cornell Law Review (2020); Wake Forest Law Review (2019); U.C. Irvine Law Review (2018); William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal (2015 & 2016); Hastings Law Journal (2014); and University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform (2014). She also contributed to FEMINIST JUDGMENTS: REWRITTEN TORTS OPINIONS (2020), THE CONTESTED PLACE OF RELIGION IN FAMILY LAW (2018), MASS COMMUNICATIONS LAW IN IDAHO (2017), and FEMINIST JUDGMENTS: REWRITTEN U.S. SUPREME COURT OPINIONS (2016). Professor Sanders is a contributor at SCOTUSblog.

Professor Sanders regularly gives CLE, university, and public service presentations. She has developed a reputation and expertise on constitutional matters. Professor Sanders has appeared in national and international news publications and broadcasts, including New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, BuzzFeed, Glamour Magazine, YahooNews!, National Public Radio, MSNBC, NBC NewsNow, and CBC News. She also regularly appears on local television and public radio news broadcasts in Idaho and around the Pacific Northwest.

Prior to joining the legal academy, Professor Sanders served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Ivan L.R. Lemelle in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and for the Honorable Lavenski R. Smith, current Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. She practiced in Seattle, Washington at K&L Gates and the Public Defender Association. She also practiced in New Orleans, Louisiana at Locke Lord.

Professor Sanders attended Loyola University New Orleans College of Law where she served as Index/Casenote Editor on the Loyola Law Review and was named a William Crowe Scholar. She received a B.S. in Psychology from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where she previously served as president of her 20th Reunion Committee. Professor Sanders currently serves on the Trinity College Board of Fellows.

Professor Sanders has bar admission in Louisiana, New York, and Washington, as well as various federal district and circuit courts. She previously chaired the AALS Section on Constitutional Law, the AALS Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues, and the Idaho State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Professor Sanders currently serves on the Board of Directors for the ACLU of Idaho and on the ACLU National Board as the Idaho representative and one of three elected general counsels.

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

Law Review Articles

The Corporate Privacy Proxy, 105 Cornell L. Rev. (forthcoming 2020).

Ag-Gag Free Nation, 54 Wake Forest L. Rev. 491 (2019).

Rewritten Opinion of Simpkins v. Grace Brethren Church, in Feminist Judgments: Torts Opinions Rewritten (forthcoming 2019).

Religious Healing Exemptions and the Jurisprudential Gap Between Substantive Due Process and Free Exercise Rights, 8 Irvine L. Rev. 633 (2018).

By Faith Alone: When Religious Beliefs and Child Welfare Collide, in The Contested Place of Religion in Family Law (Robin Fretwell Wilson ed., 2018) (co-authored with Robin Fretwell Wilson).

Book Chapters

Rewritten Opinion of Simpkins v. Grace Brethren Church, in FEMINIST JUDGMENTS: REWRITTEN TORTS OPINIONS 390 (Cambridge University Press, 2020)

By Faith Alone: When Religious Beliefs and Child Welfare Collide, in THE CONTESTED PLACE OF RELIGION IN FAMILY LAW 308 (Cambridge University Press 2018) (co-authored with Robin Fretwell Wilson)

Defamation and Libel in Mass Communication Law In Idaho 51-83 (Rebecca Tallent et al eds., New Forums State Law Series 2017).

Invasion of Privacy, in Mass Communication Law In Idaho 165-96 (Rebecca Tallent et al eds., New Forums State Law Series 2017).

Obscenity and Indecency, in Mass Communication Law In Idaho 83-96 (Rebecca Tallent et al eds., New Forums State Law Series 2017).

Commercial Speech and Advertising, in Mass Communication Law In Idaho 153-63 (Rebecca Tallent et al eds., New Forums State Law Series 2017).

Commentary on United States v. Morrison, in FEMINIST JUDGMENTS: REWRITTEN OPINIONS OF THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT 447 (Cambridge University Press 2016)

Blog Posts

•  SCOTUSblog
  • Justices affirm Crawford’s application of Sixth Amendment confrontation clause to testimonial evidence
  • Justices probe both sides in class between confrontation clause and evidentiary rules
  • Will the court recognize New York’s “door opening” rule as an exception the Xith Amendment’s Confrontation Clause?
• Casetext
  • Idaho Ag-Gag Law Found Unconstitutional
  • Will the Cake be Baked
  •  Valuing Confrontation as a Felony Sentencing Right
  • Compelled Decryption: “Jiggery Pokery” or “Pure Applesauce”?
  • A Kennedy “Super Swing” on Abortion Clinic Regulations?
  • Trump Immigration Roll Out and its Implications for SCOTUS Nomination Battle

Citations to articles

Beason v. IE Miller Services, Inc., --- P.3d ---, 2019 WL 1772328, at *15 n.60 (Ok. 2019) (Edmondson, J., dissenting) (citing Deconstructing Juryless Fact-Finding in Civil Cases, 25 WM. & MARY BILL RTS. J. 235 (2016)).

State v. Zamzow, 892 N.W. 637, 651 n.7, 658 n.31 (Wis. 2017) (Abrahamson, J., dissenting) (citing Unbranding Confrontation as Only a Trial Right, 65 HASTINGS L.J. 1257 (2014)).

Civil Jury Trial Right

• Rewritten Opinion of Simpkins v. Grace Brethren Church, in FEMINIST JUDGMENTS: REWRITTEN TORTS OPINIONS --- (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2019)
• Deconstructing Juryless Fact-Finding in Civil Cases, 25 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 235 (2016)
  • Cited in Beason v. IE Miller Services, Inc., --- P.3d ---, 2019 WL 1772328, at *15 n.60 (Ok. 2019) (Edmondson, J., dissenting)
  • Featured on Juries Blog
• Uncapping Compensation in the Gore Due Process Analysis, 24 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 37 (2015)

Felony Sentencing Procedure

• The Value of Confrontation as a Felony Sentencing Right, 25 Widener L.J. 103 (2016) (criminal sentencing symposium)
  
  • Featured on Kansas Federal Public Defender Blog, CrimProf Blog, Sentencing Law and Policy Blog, and Excited Utterance Podcast
• Unbranding Confrontation as Only a Trial Right, 65 Hastings L.J. 1257 (2014)
  
  • Cited in State v. Zamzow, 892 N.W. 637, 651 n.7, 658 n.31 (Wis. 2017) (Abrahamson, J., dissenting)
  • Featured on CrimProf Blog
• Making the Right Call for Confrontation at Felony Sentencing, 47 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 791 (2014)
  

The First Amendment

    Privacy

• The Corporate Privacy Proxy, 105 Cornell L. Rev. --- (forthcoming 2020)
• Invasion of Privacy, in MASS COMMUNICATION LAW IN IDAHO 165-96 (Rebecca Tallent et al eds., New Forums State Law Series 2017)

     Religious Liberty

• Fetal Equality, 76 WASH. & LEE LAW REV. — ONLINE 123 (2020) (invited roundtable submission)
• Religious Healing Exemptions and the Jurisprudential Gap Between Substantive Due Process and Free Exercise Rights, 8 Irvine L. Rev. 633 (2018).
• By Faith Alone: When Religious Beliefs and Child Welfare Collide, in THE CONTESTED PLACE OF RELIGION IN FAMILY LAW 308 (Cambridge University Press 2018) (co-authored with Robin Fretwell Wilson)

     Speech

• Gag Free Nation (forthcoming, presented at 2022 Freedom of Expression Scholars Conference)
• Gag with Malice, 79 WASH. & LEE LAW REV. — (2023) (presented at 2021 National Conference of Constitutional Law Scholars)
• Ag-Gag Free Nation, 54 Wake Forest L. Rev. 491 (2019)
• Defamation and Libel, in MASS COMMUNICATION LAW IN IDAHO 51-83 (Rebecca Tallent et al eds., New Forums State Law Series 2017)
• Obscenity and Indecency, in MASS COMMUNICATION LAW IN IDAHO 83-96 (Rebecca Tallent et al eds., New Forums State Law Series 2017)
• Commercial Speech and Advertising, in MASS COMMUNICATION LAW IN IDAHO 153-63 (Rebecca Tallent et al eds., New Forums State Law Series 2017)
• Ag-Gag Free Detroit, 93 U. Det. Mercy L. Rev. 669 (2016) (centennial symposium on the past, present, and future of the City of Detroit)

     Confrontation Clause

• Hemphill v. New York, 49 ABA PREVIEW 17 (2021)
• Two Rules for Cross-Examination at Drug Sentencing, — OHIO STATE J. CRIM. LAW — (2022) (forthcoming)
• The Value of Confrontation as a Felony Sentencing Right, 25 WIDENER L.J. 103 (2016) (criminal sentencing symposium)
• Unbranding Confrontation as Only a Trial Right, 65 HASTINGS L.J. 1257 (2014) (cited in United States v. Lattimore, Cr. No. 20-123 (TFH), 2021 WL 860234, at *4 n.2, — F. Supp.3d —, (D. D.C. 03/08/21); Statev. Zamzow, 892 N.W. 637, 651 n.7, 658 n.31, 373 Wis. 220 (Wis. 2017) (Abrahamson, J., dissenting))
• Making the Right Call for Confrontation at Felony Sentencing, 47 U. MICH. J.L. REFORM 791 (2014)

Miscellaneous

• Commentary on United States v. Morrison, Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Opinions of the United States Supreme Court 447 (Cambridge University Press 2016)
• Michigan’s Duty to Provide Access to Health Care, 6 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)
• Note, Putting an End to the Speculative Jury: Louisiana v. Haddad, 45 Loy. L. Rev. 783 (1999)

• Idaho 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)