Michele Goodwin

Michele Goodwin

JD, LLM, SJD

Board Member

Michele Bratcher Goodwin is the Linda D. & Timothy J. O’Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy at Georgetown Law School. She is also co-faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.  Previously, she served as a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine, where she was the founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy. 

She is the 2022 recipient of the American Bar Association’s Margaret Brent Award as well as the 2022 Trailblazer Award from the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles.  In 2020-21, she received the Distinguished Senior Faculty Award for Research, the highest honor bestowed by the University of California.  In 2021-22, she was named the Provost’s Distinguished Visiting Faculty Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.  She is an elected member of the American Law Institute as well as an elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Hastings Center.  

Professor Goodwin is a sought-after public commentator and has been featured in print, radio, and television news, including PoliticoSalon.comForbesThe Washington PostThe New York TimesLos Angeles TimesBoston GlobeChicago Sun-TimesVox, Mother Jones; ABC News; NBC News; NPRHBO’s Vice NewsMSNBC, and Ms. Magazine, among others. She is host of the popular podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin at Ms. Magazine. A prolific author, Goodwin’s publications include six books and over 100 articles, essays, book chapters, and commentaries.  She is the author of the award-winning book, Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood. 

Professor Goodwin’s health and constitutional law scholarship appears in the Harvard Law Review, California Law ReviewChicago Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Michigan Law Review, New York University Law Review, Northwestern Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and Yale Law Journal, among others.  This dossier addresses legal questions related to bodily autonomy, reproductive freedom and rights, freedom of speech; religious exercise; equal protection; due process; race and sex discrimination; slavery; and LGBTQ equality. Her scholarship has been referenced by national media, legislators, and civil society organizations.   

Professor Goodwin has authored or co-authored amicus briefs submitted to the United States Supreme Court as well as the Second, Third, Sixth, and Ninth U.S. Courts of Appeals.  She has provided testimony to state and federal lawmakers and legislative committees and worked with state attorneys general or their staff on health-related matters in California, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York.