Douglas NeJaime

Anne Urowsky Professor of Law
(on leave, spring 2024)
Education

J.D., Harvard Law School, 2003

A.B., Brown University, 2000

Courses Taught
  • Professional Responsibility
  • Family Law
  • The Constitution of the Family
  • Law & Sexuality
Douglas NeJaime headshot

Douglas NeJaime is Anne Urowsky Professor of Law at Yale Law School, where he teaches in the areas of family law, legal ethics, law and sexuality, and constitutional law. Before joining the Yale faculty in 2017, NeJaime was Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, where he served as Faculty Director of the Williams Institute, a research institute on sexual orientation and gender identity law and public policy. He has also served on the faculties at UC Irvine School of Law and Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, and was Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. NeJaime is the co-author of Family Law in a Changing America (with Ralph Richard Banks, Joanna Grossman, and Suzanne Kim), Cases and Materials on Sexuality, Gender Identity, and the Law (with Carlos Ball, Jane Schacter, and William Rubenstein), and Ethical Lawyering: Legal and Professional Responsibilities in the Practice of Law (with Paul Hayden). His recent scholarship includes: “Answering the Lochner Objection: Reexamining Substantive Due Process and the Role of Courts in a Democracy,” 96 N.Y.U. Law Review (forthcoming 2021); “The Constitution of Parenthood,” 72 Stanford Law Review 261 (2020); “The Nature of Parenthood,” 126 Yale Law Journal 2260 (2017); “Marriage Equality and the New Parenthood,” 129 Harvard Law Review 1185 (2016); “Conscience Wars: Complicity-Based Conscience Claims in Religion and Politics,” 124 Yale Law Journal 2516 (2015), with Reva Siegel; and “Before Marriage: The Unexplored History of Nonmarital Recognition and Its Relationship to Marriage,” 102 California Law Review 87 (2014). On three occasions, NeJaime has received the Dukeminier Award, which recognizes the best sexual orientation legal scholarship published in the previous year. He has also been the recipient of the YLW Faculty Excellence Award at Yale Law School, the Women’s Law Association teaching award at Harvard Law School, the Professor of the Year Award at UC Irvine School of Law, and the Excellence in Teaching Award at Loyola Law School. NeJaime has been a leader on national efforts to reform parentage laws to accommodate families that feature nonbiological parent-child relationships, including those formed by same-sex couples and through assisted reproduction. NeJaime led the effort to pass comprehensive parentage reform in Connecticut, serving as the principal drafter of the Connecticut Parentage Act, Public Act 21-15, which passed with near-unanimous support in both chambers of the legislature and was signed by Governor Ned Lamont in 2021.

News

Books

Family Law in a Changing America (with Ralph Richard Banks, Joanna Grossman, and Suzanne Kim). 1st ed. Wolters Kluwer (2021).

Ethical Lawyering: Legal and Professional Responsibilities in the Practice of Law (with Paul Hayden). 4th ed. West (2018). 

Cases and Materials on Sexuality, Gender Identity, and the Law (with Carlos Ball, Jane Schacter, and William Rubenstein). 6th ed. West (2017). 

 

Articles and Chapters

Answering the Lochner Objection: Reexamining Substantive Due Process and the Role of Courts in a Democracy, 96 N.Y.U. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2021) (with Reva Siegel).

Conscience Wars in the Americas, 5 Latin American Law Review 1 (2020).

The Constitution of Parenthood, 72 Stanford Law Review 261 (2020).

Concurring Opinion (with Reva Siegel), in What Obergefell v. Hodges Should Have Said (Jack M. Balkin ed., Yale Univ. Press 2020).

The Story of Brooke S.B. v. Elizabeth A.C.C.: Parental Recognition in the Age of LGBT Equality, in LAW STORIES: REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS AND JUSTICE (Reva Siegel, Melissa Murray, & Kate Shaw eds., Foundation Press 2019).

Differentiating Assimilation, 75 Studies in Law, Politics, and Society 1 (2018). (Invited symposium essay)

Religious Accommodation, and Its Limits, in a Pluralist Society (with Reva Siegel), in Religious Freedom and LGBT Rights: Possibilities and Challenges for Finding Common Ground (Robin Fretwell Wilson & William N. Eskridge, Jr. eds., Cambridge University Press 2018).

Conscience Wars in Transnational Perspective: Religious Liberty, Third-Party Harm, and Pluralism (with Reva Siegel), in The Conscience Wars: Rethinking the Balance between Religion, Identity, and Equality 187 (edited by Susanna Mancini & Michel Rosenfeld, Cambridge Univeristy Press 2018).

The Family’s Constitution, 32 Constitutional Commentary 413 (2017). (Invited symposium essay)

The Nature of Parenthood, 126 Yale Law Journal 2260 (2017).

Marriage Equality and the New Parenthood, 129 Harvard Law Review 1185 (2016).

Conscience Wars: Complicity-Based Conscience Claims in Religion and Politics (with Reva Siegel), 124 Yale Law Journal 2516 (2015).

Before Marriage: The Unexplored History of Nonmarital Recognition and its Impact on Marriage, 102 California Law Review 87 (2014).

Marriage and Non-Marriage After Windsor, in Civil Rights Litigation and Attorney Fees Annual Handbook 417 (edited by Steve Saltzman and Cheryl I. Harris, Clark Boardman, 2013).

Constitutional Change, Courts, and Social Movements, 111 Michigan Law Review 877 (2013). Reviewing Constitutional Redemption: Political Faith in an Unjust World, by Jack M. Balkin (2011).

Cause Lawyers Inside the State, 87 Fordham Law Review 649 (2012). (Invited symposium article).

Marriage Inequality: Same-Sex Relationships, Religious Exemptions, and the Production of Sexual Orientation Discrimination, 100 California Law Review 1169 (2012). 

The Legal Mobilization Dilemma, 61 Emory Law Journal 663 (2012). (Invited symposium article)

Winning Through Losing, 96 Iowa Law Review 941 (2011).

Convincing Elites, Controlling Elites, 54 Studies in Law, Politics, and Society 175 (2011) (peer-reviewed).

Lawyering for Marriage Equality (with Scott Cummings), 57 UCLA Law Reivew 1235 (2010).

When New Governance Fails, 70 Ohio State Law Journal 323 (2009).

Inclusion, Accommodation, and Recognition: Accounting for Differences Based on Religion and Sexual Orientation, 32 Harvard Journal of Law & Gender 303 (2009). 

Exposing Sex Stereotypes in Recent Same-Sex Marriage Jurisprudence (with Deborah Widiss and Elizabeth Rosenblatt), 30 Harvard Journal of Law & Gender 461 (2007).

Note, Marriage, Cruising, and Life in Between: Clarifying Organizational Positionalities in Pursuit of Polyvocal Gay-Based Advocacy, 38 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 511 (2003).

 

Shorter Works

Religious Exemptions and Antidiscrimination Law in Masterpiece Cakeshop, 128 YALE LAW JOURNAL FORUM 201 (2018) (with Reva Siegel).

Conscience and the Culture Wars (with Reva Siegel), American Prospect (Summer 2015).

Griswold’s Progeny: Assisted Reproduction, Procreative Liberty, and Sexual Orientation Equality, 124 Yale Law Journal Forum 340 (2015). (Symposium on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Griswold v. Connecticut)

Introduction: Religious Accommodation in the Age of Civil Rights (with Nomi Stolzenberg), 38 Harvard Journal of Law & Gender vii (2015). (Symposium introduction)

Doctrine in Context, 127 Harvard Law Review Forum 10 (2013). (Invited response)

Windsor's Right to Marry, 102 Yale Law Journal Online 219 (2013).

The View from Below: Public Interest Lawyering, Social Change, and Legal Education, 61 UCLA Law Review Discourse 182 (2013). Reviewing Public Interest Lawyering: A Contemporary Perspective (Alen Chen & Scott Cummings, eds. 2013). 

Marriage, Biology, and Gender, 98 Iowa Law Review Bulletin 83 (2013). (Invited response)

Framing (In)Equality for Same-Sex Couples, 60 UCLA Law Review Discourse 184 (2013). (Symposium contribution)

Introduction: Talking Around Marriage, 45 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 675 (2012). (Symposium introduction)

New Entrants Bring New Questions, 19 Law & Sexuality 181 (2010)