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Amber Vayo’s State Reproductive Autonomy Index has been published in Law and Social Inquiry. A large, original data created using a reproductive justice frame, the Index offers ways to map legal pluralism (multiple systems of law that coexist in the same space) and makes the case for reproductive justice not reproductive rights as the dominant discourse surrounding reproductive politics. Additionally, the article calls for more systematic ways of studying health law and policy issues through public health Law methods like Legal Epidemiology. (The States of Inequality: Methods for Mapping Legal Pluralism in Reproductive Autonomy, Law and Social Inquiry)

Tatishe Nteta, Provost Professor of Political Science and Director of UMass Poll is quoted in an article about the relationship between Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and newly-elected Mass. Governor Maura Healey, who have disagreed on policy issues. Nteta says, “A number of progressives and Democrats assume that Maura Healey is going to be a progressive governor, [but her agenda] doesn’t sound like a progressive one to me.” (The Boston Globe, 11/19/22) 

Paul Collins, Professor of Legal Studies and Political Science, says it’s unlikely U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett will recuse herself from an upcoming LGBTQ+ rights case because of her former role on the board of of Christian private schools that reportedly barred admission to children of same-sex parents. Collins says, “The allegations of a conflict are too broad to be meaningful and could apply to membership in a wide array of religious organizations that would effectively preclude many justices from ever hearing cases about any issues that remotely involve religion.” (Newsweek, 11/22/22)