Khiara M. Bridges is a professor of law at UC Berkeley School of Law. She has written many articles concerning race, class, reproductive rights, and the intersection of the three. Her scholarship has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the California Law Review, the NYU Law Review, and the Virginia Law Review, among others. She is also the author of three books: Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization (2011), The Poverty of Privacy Rights (2017), and Critical Race Theory: A Primer (2019). She is a coeditor of a reproductive justice book series that is published under the imprint of the University of California Press.
She graduated as valedictorian from Spelman College, receiving her degree in three years. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and her Ph.D., with distinction, from Columbia University’s Department of Anthropology. While in law school, she was a teaching assistant for the former dean, David Leebron (Torts), as well as for the late E. Allan Farnsworth (Contracts). She was a member of the Columbia Law Review and a Kent Scholar. She speaks fluent Spanish and basic Arabic, and she is a classically trained ballet dancer.
Education
B.A., summa cum laude, Spelman College
J.D., Columbia Law School
Ph.D., with distinction, Columbia University
Khiara M Bridges is teaching the following course in Spring 2024:
Courses During Other Semesters
| Semester | Course Num | Course Title | Fall 2024 | 212.3 sec. 001 | Critical Race Theory | Fall 2023 | 212.3 sec. 001 | Critical Race Theory | 281 sec. 001 | Family Law | Spring 2023 | 281 sec. 001 | Family Law |
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California Law Review Symposium Confronts Equality Concerns in Supreme Court Jurisprudence
Legal scholars from across the country unpacked recent decisions they say depart from historical precedent and jeopardize the rights of minorities and other vulnerable groups.
Dr. Khiara Bridges and the Abundant Birth Project Lawsuit
Professor Khiara Bridges joins hosts Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay to discuss conservative backlash to a San Francisco maternal health program for Black women.
Dancers of All Sizes Hope Change Follows a Discrimination Ban
Discrimination cases are generally difficult to argue in court. “You need a smoking gun,” said Khiara M. Bridges, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and a former professional dancer. The array of aesthetic judgments involved in dance casting and hiring scenarios can make them especially difficult to parse.
Could the Texas couple who sought a court order to get an abortion face legal risks after out-of-state travel?
Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses a legal challenge to Texas abortion bans.
Backlash to affirmative action hits pioneering maternal health program for Black women
Professor Khiara M.Bridges also drew another distinction between the role of race in college admissions and the role of race in health disparities. “If you don’t get into Harvard, there’s always Princeton or Columbia or Cornell,” she said. “Maternal death — the stakes are a little bit higher.”
Diversity tussle sparks fears over women’s progress in the workplace
“If companies are going to be risk-averse going forward, then all of the groups that have benefited from DEI programmes are going to be harmed,” warns Khiara M. Bridges, a professor at UC Berkeley law school.
O impacto trazido pela primeira juíza negra no Supremo dos EUA
Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses the impact Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has had on the Supreme Court.
A men’s movement takes reins in a nationwide quest to end abortion
“It’s kind of like a zero sum type of game in the sense that the more rights you give to fetuses, the fewer rights you give to the people that actually gestate them,” said Professor Khiara M. Bridges.
How the US Supreme Court Became an Arm of the Republican Party
The court is making decisions based on the GOP platform, not the Constitution, says Professor Khiara M. Bridges.
A new era for birth control
Professor Khiara M. Bridges joins host Jonquilyn Hill to discuss the over-the-counter birth control pill on the podcast The Weeds.
Even some justices are raising questions about the U.S. Supreme Court’s legitimacy
Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest term and credibility.
No ‘tiny voice’: Ketanji Brown Jackson’s outspoken first term
Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s first term.
The Supreme Court is on a mission to ensure the US assumes the form that the Republican Party wants
In an interview with Professor Khiara M. Bridges, she says “It really is hard to reconcile these decisions with one another in terms of an overarching theory of law.”
Affirmative Action Has Been Banned in College Admissions. Here’s How Corporate Leaders Can Respond
Professor Khiara M. Bridges discusses the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action.
The State of Bodily Autonomy
Professor of Law Khiara M. Bridges joins hosts Lori Adelman and Leila Durabi for a conversation about reproductive rights.
Death and grief in ‘Succession’; plus, privacy and the abortion pill
Host Brittany Luse is joined by UC Berkeley Law professor Khiara M. Bridges to connect the dots between the recent legal battles over the abortion pill mifepristone and our constitutional right to privacy.
The Abortion Pill Legal Standoff Endangers Access to All Drugs
“We had accepted that federal law would preempt state law, that it would be preposterous that one federal judge in one district in Texas—or in any other state—would be able to affect the availability of a drug that had had FDA approval for 20 years,” says Khiara M. Bridges, a professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. “Now the things that we thought we knew about the relationship between federal law and state law, and the FDA’s ability to regulate, have been called into question.”
What the Supreme Court’s decision in the legal fight over abortion pills means for access to mifepristone
“It sort of puts the fire under all courts in the country to resolve the conflict as soon as possible,” said Professor Khiara M. Bridges.
Oklahoma must allow abortion if mother’s life is threatened, court rules
“The ruling means pregnant people no longer have to wait until “their life is literally on the line” to legally qualify for an abortion,” said Khiara M. Bridges, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley. “But it’s a narrow win because people trying to avoid a potentially life-threatening pregnancy make up a small proportion of those seeking abortions.”
When Forced Birth Becomes a Banality
Professor of Law Khiara M. Bridges joins host Lindsay Langholz for a conversation about forced birth in America and what it means for pregnant people, families, and the law when forced birth becomes a banality.