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Jennifer Safstrom

Assistant Clinical Professor of Law

Jennifer Safstrom teaches the Stanton Foundation First Amendment Clinic at Vanderbilt Law School. Before joining Vanderbilt's law faculty, Professor Safstrom worked as counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and as supervising attorney and clinical teaching fellow with the Civil Rights Clinic at Georgetown Law. She also served as the Dunn Legal Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.

Safstrom earned her J.D. at Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A. at the University of Miami. Her legal scholarship has been published in the Clinical Law Review, Georgetown Law JournalYale Journal of Law and FeminismHarvard Latinx Law ReviewBarry Law Review, Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, and Loyola University Chicago’s Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences, among other journals. She has been quoted in the Washington Post, Above the Law, CityLab, and Breitbart and in other local and national publications.

Research Interests

First Amendment law, civil rights


Representative Publications

  • "Developing Inclusive Language Competency in Clinical Teaching," 29 Clinical Law Review 349 (2023) (with Joseph Mead)
    Full Text | WWW
  • "Time to SLAPP Back: Advocating Against the Adverse Civil Liberties Implications of Litigation that Undermines Public Participation," 3 Louisiana State University Journal for Social Justice & Policy 125 (2023)
    Full Text | WWW
  • "Thirteenth Amendment Litigation in the Immigration Detention Context," 26 Michigan Journal of Race and Law 205 (2020)
    Full Text | WWW
  • "The Health and Legal Implications of Early Screening for Developmental Disabilities for Youth & Justice-Involved Populations," 29 Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences 153 (2020) (with Jacqueline Safstrom)  
  •  "Analysis of the Applications and Implications of Chevron Deference in Immigration," 34 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 53 (2019)
  • "Weathering the Storm: Utilizing Congressional Investigations to Improve National Hurricane Preparedness," 22 Harvard Latinx Law Review 37 (2019)
  • "Salary History and Pay Parity: Assessing Prior Salary History as a 'Factor Other Than Sex' in Equal Pay Act Litigation," 31 Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 135 (2019)
  • "States a Civil Rights Actors: Assessing Advocacy Mechanisms within a State's Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches," 24 Barry Law Review 53 (2019)
  • "An Analysis of Sanctuary Campuses: Assessing the Legality and Effectiveness of Policies Protective of Undocumented Students and of Potential Government Responses," 106 Georgetown Law Journal 1523 (2018)