Lucas Guttentag

Martin R. Flug Lecturer in Law and Senior Research Scholar
Education

J.D., Harvard Law School, 1978

A.B., University of California, Berkeley, 1973

Courses Taught
  • Immigration Law, Policy, and Constitutional Rights
  • Constitutional Impact and Law Reform Litigation
  • Advanced Immigration and Migration Topics
Lucas Guttentag

Lucas Guttentag is Martin R. Flug Lecturer in Law and Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School and Professor of the Practice of Law at Stanford Law School. His career has spanned litigation, advocacy, academia, and government service. Guttentag founded the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Immigrants’ Rights Project (IRP) and led it for 25 years until 2010, establishing it as the country’s premiere immigrant justice litigation organization and successfully arguing major cases in the United States Supreme Court and many trial and appellate courts nationwide. Guttentag held senior policy positions in the Biden administration Department of Justice and the Obama administration Department of Homeland Security, has testified before Congress, speaks and writes widely on immigration issues, and is regularly cited in the national media. In 2017, he created the Immigration Policy Tracking Project, a dynamic website profiled in The New Yorker and The New York Times that documents every Trump administration immigration policy. Guttentag has been honored by many national and community-based organizations for his work and leadership, including being named the inaugural Human Rights Hero by the ABA Human Rights Journal, recognized as appellate lawyer of the year by California Lawyer magazine, named litigator of the year by the American Immigration Lawyers Association four times, and listed among the 500 Leading Lawyers in America by Lawdragon. He was awarded an honorary degree by CUNY Law School and is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI). Guttentag earned his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and his J.D. from Harvard Law School, and served as law clerk to federal judge William Wayne Justice in Texas.

Immigration Policy Tracking Project. An interactive online compilation of every Trump administration immigration policy and current status (2017-2021) https://immpolicytracking.org. Profiled in The New York Times and The New Yorker.

The President and Immigration Law: The Danger and Promise of Presidential Power (October 2020) (book review), https://www.justsecurity.org/72863/the-president-and-immigration-law-the-danger-and-promise-of-presidential-power/

Coronavirus Border Expulsions: CDC’s Assault on Asylum Seekers and Unaccompanied Minors (April 2020), https://www.justsecurity.org/69640/coronavirus-border-expulsions-cdcs-assault-on-asylum-seekers-and-unaccompanied-minors/ (expanded and updated in 25 Benders Immigration Bulletin 815 (June 2020)

"Trump Is Using the Pandemic to Flout Immigration Laws", New York Times (May 2020) (with Stefano Bertozzi) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/opinion/trump-coronavirus-immigration.html

"Reflections on Bureaucratic Barriers to Immigration Reform", The Regulatory Review (December 2019), https://www.theregreview.org/2019/12/24/guttentag-reflections-bureaucratic-barriers-immigration/

"In Alabama, Challenging Hidden Racial Discrimination", New York Times (August 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/opinion/politics/minimum-wage-discrimination-alabama.html

"The Forgotten Equality Norm in Immigration Preemption: DisWEdnesdazy crimination, Harassment, and the Civil Rights Act of 1870", 8 Duke J. Con. Law & Pub. Pol’y 1 (2013)