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Influenced by the six years he spent herding goats as a child in the Rio Grande Valley, Harvard Law 1L Sam Garcia has written “How a Goat Was Elected Mayor and the Political Spring That Followed,” a book that explores untold or rarely-heard stories behind upset elections.

On Feb. 11., the Harvard Law School (HLS) LL.M. class of 2017 welcomed faculty, students and staff to the annual International Party in Wasserstein Hall.

During a recent lecture hosted by the Harvard Law School Forum called “Why Trump? What Now?”, Harvard Professor Michael Sandel took a hard look at Donald Trump’s emerging presidency and the social and economic discontent that put him in office.

Tom Perez ’87, who most recently served as Secretary of Labor in the Obama administration, has been elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, the first Latino to hold that post.

The Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC) has released a new report titled "Indefinite War: Unsettled International Law on the End of Armed Conflict."

Anna Crowe, clinical instructor at Harvard Law School's Human Rights Program, traveled to Jordan to interview Syrian refugees about the difficulties of obtaining legal documentation and the precarious existence of living and traveling without papers.

On the morning of Jan. 9, Dayne Lee ’17, a student practitioner with the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, slipped into a suit after three sleepless nights leading up to his major argument before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in a case pitting federally controlled mortgage giant Fannie Mae against homeowner Elvitria Marroquin – a Lynn, Mass. homeowner who has been fighting foreclosure since 2008.

Two Harvard Law School teams competed at the 13th annual Williams Institute Moot Court Competition at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law earlier this month. The event, which featured 30 teams from law schools nationwide, is the only national competition dedicated exclusively to the areas of sexual orientation and gender identity law.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer LL.B. ’64 sometimes says that his job and that of other members of the Supreme Court is to speak for the law. He does not mean that justices are Platonic Guardians, with ironclad power to impose their will on the nation despite being unelected. The job calls for deference to the elected branches of government, he emphasizes, and, even more, for caution and doubt. The United States is built on the principles of liberty, he quotes from a famous speech by Judge Learned Hand, and liberty’s spirit is “the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.”

For the first time, Harvard Law School and the MIT Media Lab have collaborated to host an innovative January-term course, “Internet & Society: The Technologies and Politics of Control,” dedicated to understanding the legal and technical dynamics of the digital world.

The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program filed an amicus curiae brief on February 16 in the Eastern District of New York case against President Trump’s executive orders on immigration -- one of several cases currently challenging the president’s actions on immigration.

Khizr Khan LL.M. '86, the Gold Star father who gained fame for his speech at the Democratic National Convention, joined HLS Professor Intisar A. Rabb, director of the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School, to discuss civil liberties and political action.

Alexander Acosta, a 1994 graduate of Harvard Law School, is President Donald Trump’s pick as the next Secretary of Labor.

Five Harvard Law School students and recent graduates have been awarded Skadden Fellowships to support their work in public service.

In a recent appearance at HLS, Ayelet Waldman ’91 -- a former criminal defense lawyer and federal public defender -- discussed her book “A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life,” using it as a backdrop to delve into the social and racial dimensions of the war on drugs.

In early February, Harvard Law School hosted the New England Regional of the National Trial Competition, the largest law school trial advocacy competition in the country.

Harvard Law School’s Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program has released a report on the effects of President Trump’s Executive Orders on people seeking asylum protection in the United States under long-standing provisions of U.S. and international law, including refugee law and the Convention Against Torture.

During this year’s spring semester, Mark Tushnet, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, is teaching a novel seminar called “Diversity and Social Justice in First Year Classes.” It combines classroom teaching with an eight-part public lecture series examining how issues of diversity and social justice can be integrated into the core 1L classes.

Growing up in Mexico City as a self-proclaimed geek, Berkman Klein Center Fellow and self-taught computer programmer Paola Villarreal has been developing open source data tools, including interactive maps, to explore inequality in Boston-area justice, health, education, housing, and transportation.

Describing him, among other things, as "a man of enormous achievements," HLS scholars say Supreme Court nominee Neil M. Gorsuch '91 -- selected by President Donald Trump to replace the late Antonin Scalia -- would alter the tone, if not the balance, of the Court, if appointed.

The Harvard Law Review has elected ImeIme Umana ’18 as its 131st president. Umana succeeds Michael Zuckerman ’17.