CSCHS › Society News


 

The 2023 Student Writing Competition

The 2023 Student Writing Competition Announcement
 
The California Supreme Court Historical Society is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 CSCHS Selma Moidel Smith Student Writing Competition in California Legal History.

1st:  “The End of Free Land:  The Commodification of Suscol Ranch and the Liberalization of American Colonial Policy.” Kyle DeLand

2nd:  “California’s Constitutional University:  Private Property, Public Power, and the Constitutional Corporation, 1868-1900.” Michael Banerjee

3rd:  “A Shameful Legacy:  Tracing the Japanese American Experience of Police Violence and Racism from the Late 19th Century Through the Aftermath of World War II.” Miranda Tafoya

Honorable Mention:  “White v. Kwock Sue Lum:  Chinese Adoption and U.S. Immigration Law in the Exclusion Era.” Michael Callahan, Josh Fuhrman, Alex Heffner, Grace Hwang, Henry McGannon, Abby Morris, Emma Peddrick, Maddux Reece, Christopher Sosnik and Jackson Warmack


 

The 2022 Student Writing Competition

2022 Student Writing Competition Announcement.

The California Supreme Court Historical Society is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 CSCHS Selma Moidel Smith Student Writing Competition in California Legal History.

1st:  “More than Moratoriums:  The Obstacles to Abolishing California’s Death Penalty.” Leah Haberman

2nd:  “San Fernando Valley Secession:  How a Quest to Change the Law Almost Broke L.A. Apart (and Whether It Still Could).” Ryan Carter

3rd:  “Wind of (Constitutional) Change:  Amendment Clauses in the Federal and State Constitutions.” Simon Ruhland


The 2021 Student Writing Competition

The California Supreme Court Historical Society is pleased to announce the 2021 Student Writing Competition Winners.

1st:  “Surveying the Golden State (April 1850-June 2020):  Vagrancy, Racial Exclusion, Sit-Lie, and the Right to Exist in Public.”  Kayley Berger

2nd:  “Getting to Tarasoff:   A Gender-Based History of Tort Law Doctrine.”  Brook Tylka

3rd:  “California Wrongful Incarceration Compensation Law:   A History That is Still Being Written.”  Kelly Shea Delvac


The 2020 Student Writing Competition

The California Supreme Court Historical Society is pleased to announce the 2020 Student Writing Competition Winners

1st:  “Ronald Reagan v. CRLA:   Politics, Power, and Poverty Law”   Taylor Cozzens

2nd:  “Breaking California’s Cycle of Juvenile Transfer”  Gus Tupper

3rd:  “Stop! Turn the Car Around Right Now for Federalism’s Sake! The One National Program Rule and How Courts Can Stop Its Impact”  Brittney Welch


Constitutional Governance and Judicial Power: The History of the California Supreme Court

The Society’s long-awaited Constitutional Governance and Judicial Power: The History of the California Supreme Court is now available for purchase. Edited by Harry N. Scheiber, this publication covers the Court’s history from 1849 through the George Court in 2010.

›  Order Book


The 2019 Student Writing Competition

The California Supreme Court Historical Society is pleased to announce the 2019 Student Writing Competition Winners.

The first place winning article was“Right of Publicity in the Era of Celebrity:  A Conceptual Exploration of the California Right of Publicity, as Expanded in White v. Samsung Electonics, in Today’s World of Celebrity Glorification and Imitation” by Sarah Alberstein

The second place winning article was “The Right of Free Speech in Privately Owned Premises:  Following up with the Robins v. Pruneyard Judgment” by Parthabi Kanungo


The 2018 Student Writing Competition

The California Supreme Court Historical Society is pleased to announce the 2018 Student Writing Competition Winner. The winning article was “How a California Settler Unsettled the Proslavery Legislature of Antebellum Louisiana” by Alexandra Havrylyshyn.


The 2017 Student Writing Competition

The California Supreme Court Historical Society is pleased to announce the 2017 Student Writing Competition Winner. The winning article was California’s No-Duty Law and Its Negative Implications by Michaela Goldstein.


Selma Moidel Smith Oral History

CSCHS Board member Selma Moidel Smith has been interviewed for the American Bar Association’s Women Trailblazers in the Law Oral History project. She is one of approximately 100 women lawyers nationwide included in the project.


Chief: The Quest for Justice in California

This important new book chronicles the life and career of former Chief Justice Ronald George. The book is based on an extensive series of oral history interviews conducted by the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley and funded by the Society.

›  Purchase Information


California Legal History is the annual journal of CSCHS providing scholarly articles and oral histories of prominent figures of the bench and bar of California. To preview the contents of our latest issue, please see below:

California Legal History | 2019: Vol. 14 [PDF]