Saleema Snow
(202) 274-7439
vanita.snow@udc.edu

Saleema Snow
Professor of Law
Director, Legal Writing Program

Saleema Snow is a Professor of Law at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. She teaches Critical Race Theory, various legal writing courses, and directs the Legal Writing Program. Her students have recognized her teaching in numerous ways including in 2018, awarding her the Student Bar Association’s Outstanding Law Professor Award.

Her scholarship focuses on religious profiling, poverty law, and the intersection of poverty, gender, and access to justice. Professor Snow is also involved in the local and national bar communities, including serving as an elected member of the D.C. Bar Board of Governors and Immediate Past-President of the National Association of Muslim Lawyers. In her leadership positions, she is a frequent contributor to professional conferences addressing identity and inclusion in the legal profession.

Professor Snow teaching Professor Snow is also the Past-President of Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, supporting the rights of Muslim women. In the face of the Trump administration’s “travel ban” denying entry to persons from six Muslim-majority countries, Professor Snow supported the filing of an amicus brief on behalf of Karamah in the United States Supreme Court case Trump v. Hawaii. The amicus argued the ban exceeded any executive authority granted to the President under the Immigration and Nationality Act and, by denying entry to thousands of women and children fleeing conflict and gender-based violence, constituted a disparate impact on women in contravention of the law’s explicit gender protections.

Before entering academia, Professor Snow practiced for over sixteen years, beginning her legal career as a Covington and Burling Westwood Fellowship at the Neighborhood Legal Services Program, representing low-income District of Columbia residents. She also served as Director of Legal Services at Advocates for Justice and Education, where she represented students in school disciplinary hearings and trained District of Columbia stakeholders on special education law and the school-to-prison pipeline. Her longstanding commitment to ending education disparity continued at the Georgia Legal Services Program, representing low-income clients in civil proceedings. In Georgia, she regularly engaged in policy advocacy, leading a statewide advocacy committee to combat discriminatory school suspension and disciplinary practices against students of color. She also served on a Domestic Violence Task Force to develop a community-based response to domestic violence.

Publications

  • The Missing Bootstrap: Closing the Transportation Equity Gap (work-in-progress).
  • The Eve Syndrome: Demonizing Immigrant Muslim Women (work-in-progress).
  • Veiling and Inverted Masking, 36 Berkeley J. Gender L. & Just. ____(2020).
  • Reframing Radical Religion, 11 Geo. J. of L. & Mod. Crit. Race Persp. 1 (2019).
  • From the Dark Tower: Unbridled Civil Asset Forfeiture, 10 Drexel L. Rev. 1 (2018).
  • The Untold Story of the Justice Gap: Integrating Poverty Law into the Law School Curriculum, 37 Pace L. Rev. 642 (2017).

Selected Presentations

  • Understanding Civil Asset Forfeiture, Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness, November 2020 (podcast)
  • Islamophobia After the Muslim Ban, ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice, November 2020 (webinar)
  • Race and the Law: An Interview with Keith Ellison, National Association of Muslim Lawyers, October 2020 (webinar)
  • Race, Religion, and Gender, Szymanski Rule of Law, July 2020 (webinar)
  • COVID Town Hall, National Association of Muslim Lawyers, May 2020 (webinar)
  • Politics of Vulnerability and The Threat to Religion and Religious Freedom, Inclusive American Project, ASPEN Institute, March 2020
  • Diversity and Inclusion, A Muslim Perspective, Penn State Law, October 2019
  • Teaching and Writing as Resistance, Southeastern Association of Law Schools, August 2019
  • Servant Leadership, KARAMAH: Muslim Women Leaders for Human Rights, June 2019
  • Movement Lawyering for Racial Liberation, Harvard Law School, April 2019
  • It’s All Write: Teaching Legal Writing as Resistance, Fourth National People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference, American University Washington College of Law, March 2019 (co-presenter)
  • Incarceration and Religious Freedom, Muslim Law Symposium: Our Forgotten Community: Prisoners’ Rights & Religious Freedom, UDC-DCSL, February 2019 (moderator)
  • Technology and the Commons: Building Community, Rethinking Learning Spaces, and Expanding our Reach, University of Pittsburg School of Law, November 2018
  • Diversity, Inclusion, and Community, National Association of Muslim Law Students Annual Conference, Yale School of Law, November 2018
  • Law and Pluralism, Aspen Institute, October 2018
  • Religious Lawyering at Twenty, Fordham University School of Law, September 2018
  • Race, Education, and Economic Justice, Race and the Trump Administration Symposium, Georgetown University Law Center, April 2018
  • The Missing Bootstrap: Closing the Transportation Equity Gap, Poverty States: Federalism, Rights, and State Anti-Poverty Efforts, American University Washington College of Law, March 2018
  • From Hoodies To Hijabs: A Necessary Conversation About Race, Religion And Politics, Georgetown University Law Center, October 2017
  • Islamophobia and Hate Crimes Against Muslim Women, Gender Justice Conference, University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, October 2017
  • From the Dark Tower: Unbridled Civil Asset Forfeiture, Legal Writing Institute Scholars Forum, Washington, D.C., July 2017
  • Islamophobia: A Social Justice Issue, Bryn Mawr College, November 2016
  • Anti-Muslim Bullying: Emerging Trends and Pro Bono Opportunities, C-SPAN, October 2016 (moderator)
  • Reclaiming Radical Religion, Getting Radical in the South Conference, University of Texas Law School, October 2016
  • Changing the Soil: Embedding Racial Equity in the Academic Garden, SALT, John Marshall Law School, September 2016
  • The Untold Story of the Justice Gap: Integrating Poverty Law into the Law School Curriculum, AALS Legal Writing Scholars’ Forum, University of Baltimore, March 2016
  • From the Dark Tower: The “Roulette Wheel” of Government Forfeiture Actions, 21st, Mid-Atlantic People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference, American University College of Law, January 2016
  • To Judge or Not to Judge: Women in the Judiciary in the Muslim World, Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia, October 2014 (moderator)
  • Access to Justice Fifty Years after the War on Poverty, University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law: Law Review Symposium, April 2014 (moderator)
  • Effective Client Interviews in Special Education Practice, University of Georgia School of Law, September 2010, January 2011
  • Using Special Education Law to Advocate for Parental Involvement, Dekalb County Juvenile Court – Georgia Public Defenders Standards Council, March 2009
  • Public School Zero-Tolerance Policies and their Relationship to the School to Prison Pipeline: Alice in Wonderland Redux, The Intersection of Childhood and the Criminal Justice System Conference, University of Georgia, October 2008