Jennifer S. Hendricks

Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Juvenile and Family Law Program

Feminist Legal Theory, Family Law, Constitutional Law, Civil Procedure


401 UCB
2450 Kittredge Loop Drive
Wolf Law Building
Boulder, CO  80309-0401
Office: 432
Phone: (303) 735-5453
E-mail: Jennifer.Hendricks@Colorado.EDU

Curriculum Vitae:  View (PDF format)

Educational Background:
J.D.   Harvard Law School   1998   (magna cum laude)
B.A.   Swarthmore College   1993   (with honors)
Bio:
Jennifer Hendricks joined the CU faculty in 2012, teaching family law and civil procedure. She previously taught at the University of Tennessee College of Law. Her research interests include sex equality and sex differences, constitutional family law, equality in sports, and relational feminist theory.

Professor Hendricks studied mathematics and women's studies at Swarthmore College and law at Harvard University. She then practiced plaintiffs' trial and appellate litigation in Montana, where she specialized in constitutional, employment, and discrimination cases. In her practice, she successfully challenged illegal voter-redistricting and vote-counting, helped high school girls win equal sports opportunities, won access to government documents for reporters and private citizens, and defended against defamation claims. She also represented victims of harassment and discrimination on the basis of sex and sexual orientation.

Published Books

Essentially a Mother: A Feminist Approach to the Law of Pregnancy and Motherhood, (University of California Press, 2023).
Essentially a Mother book cover
     * Overview and Chapter Summaries
     * Chapter 8 (on abortion): How to Reason from the Body.

Articles

Arguing with the Building Inspector About Gender-Neutral Bathrooms, 113 Northwestern University Law Review. 77 (2018).
The Wages of Genetic Entitlement: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in the Rape Survivor Child Custody Act, 112 Northwestern University Law Review Online 75 (2017).
Fathers and Feminism: The Case Against Genetic Entitlement, 91 Tulane L. Rev. 473 (2017).
Genetic Essentialism in Family Law, 26 Health Matrix 109 (2016).
Schrödinger's Child: Non-Identity and Probabilities in Reproductive Decision-Making, 69 Stud. L. Pol. & Soc'y 221 (2016).
Not of Woman Born: A Scientific Fantasy, 62 CASE WESTERN RESERVE L. REV. 399 (2011).
In Defense of the Substance-Procedure Dichotomy, 89 WASH. U. L. REV. 103 (2011).
Teaching Values, Teaching Stereotypes: Sex Ed and Indoctrination in Public Schools, with Dawn Howerton, 13 U. PENN. J. CONST. L. 589 (2011).
Body and Soul: Pregnancy, Equality, and the Unitary Right to Abortion, 45 HARV. C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 329 (2010).
Contingent Equal Protection: Reaching for Equality After Ricci and PICS, 16 MICH. J. GENDER & L. 397 (2010).
We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to Anyone, 76 TENN. L. REV. 417 (2009).
Popular Election of the President: Using or Abusing the Electoral College? 7 ELECTION L.J. 218 (2008).
Instead of ENDA, a Course Correction for Title VII, 103 NW. U. L. REV. COLLOQUY 209 (2008).
Essentially a Mother, 13 WM. & MARY J. WOMEN & L. 429 (2007).
Preemption of Common Law Claims and the Prospects for FIFRA: Justice Stevens Puts the Genie Back in the Bottle, 15 DUKE ENVTL. L. & POL'Y FORUM 65 (2005).
Women and the Promise of Equal Citizenship, 8 TEX. J. WOMEN & L. 51 (2000).

Other Publications

Hendricks (Colorado Reporter, with Ariane Frosh, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers), Handbook of State Abortion Laws After Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, (2022 and continuing).
What the End of Roe v. Wade Means for Reproductive Rights and Privacy, CU BOULDER TODAY (6/25/22).
Guest Opinion: Half a Loaf for Women and Minorities at CU Boulder, BOULDER DAILY CAMERA (5/10/22).
Disputed Conceptions of Motherhood, in THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF FEMINISM AND LAW IN THE UNITED STATES, eds. Deborah Brake, Martha Chamallas & Verna Williams (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Abortion Rights in the Supreme Court: A Tale of Three Wedges, 13 CONLAWNOW 1-10 (2021).
Hendricks (with Cyra Akila Choudhury and Shruti Rana), America's Care Crisis Is Exploding and Women Lawyers Are Being Forced to Pick Up the Pieces, ABOVE THE LAW (8/6/20).
Guest Opinion: CU-Boulder Pay Cuts Are Unjust and Regressive, BOULDER DAILY CAMERA (6/25/20).
The State's Compelling Interest in Substantive Equality, in CONTROVERSIES IN EQUAL PROTECTION CASES IN AMERICA (ed. Anne Richardson Oakes & Centre for American Legal Studies, Ashgate 2015).
Colorado Fetal Homicide Law Goes Too Far, Guest Commentary with Aya Gruber, DENVER POST. CT. REV. (4/19/15).
Undue Burdens in Texas, 127 Harv. L. Rev. Forum 145 (2014).
Renegotiating the Social Contract, 110 MICH. L. REV. 1083 (2012) (review of Maxine Eichner's THE SUPPORTIVE STATE: FAMILIES, GOVERNMENT, AND AMERICA'S POLITICAL IDEALS).
Pregnancy, Equality, and the U.S. Constitution, in FEMINIST CONSTITUTIONALISM (Beverly Baines, Daphne Barak-Erez & Tsvi Kahana eds., Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2012).
The Flight from Judgement: Reflections on Ben Barton's Empirical Study of Supreme Court Justice Pre-Appointment Experience, 64 Fla. L. Rev. 34 (2012).
Teaching Controversial Topics: Reproductive Rights, with Beth Burkstrand-Reid and June Carbone, 49 FAM. CT. REV. 678 (2011).
Converging Trajectories: Interest Convergence, Justice Kennedy, and Jeannie Suk's "Trajectory of Trauma, " 110 COLUM. L. REV. SIDEBAR 63 (2010).
Reprinted in WOMEN AND THE LAW (Tracy Thomas, ed., West 2011).
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, ed. David S. Tanenhaus et al. (2008), entries on Wimberly v. Labor & Indus. Relations Comm'n and Califano v. Goldfarb.
Montana reporter, Media Law Resource Center, 2000-05:
50-STATE SURVEY: MEDIA LIBEL LAW.
50-STATE SURVEY: MEDIA PRIVACY AND RELATED LAW.
50-STATE SURVEY: EMPLOYMENT LIBEL AND PRIVACY LAW.
Montana reporter, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, 2000-05:
TAPPING OFFICIALS' SECRETS: A STATE OPEN GOVERNMENT COMPENDIUM.

Courses:

Fall 2024 Civil Procedure LAWS 5303-801
Fall 2024 Family Law LAWS 7105-801
Spring 2024 Seminar: Topics In Law & Feminism LAWS 8795-801
Fall 2023 Civil Procedure LAWS 5303-801
Fall 2023 Family Law LAWS 7105-801
Spring 2023 Parent, Child and State LAWS 7135-801
Fall 2022 Civil Procedure LAWS 5303-801
Fall 2022 Family Law LAWS 7105-801
Spring 2022 Family Law LAWS 7105-801
Fall 2021 Civil Procedure LAWS 5303-801
Spring 2021 Parent, Child and State LAWS 7135-801
Fall 2020 Civil Procedure LAWS 5303-801
Fall 2020 Family Law LAWS 7105-801
Spring 2019 Parent, Child and State LAWS 7135-801
Fall 2018 Civil Procedure LAWS 5303-802
Fall 2018 Family Law LAWS 7105-801
Spring 2018 Law and Mathamatics LAWS 6270-801
Fall 2017 Civil Procedure LAWS 5303-802
Fall 2017 Family Law LAWS 7105-001
Spring 2017 Parent, Child and State LAWS 7135-001
Fall 2016 Civil Procedure LAWS 5303-802
Fall 2016 Family Law LAWS 7105-001
Spring 2016 Law and Mathamatics LAWS 6270-001
Fall 2015 Civil Procedure LAWS 5303-804
Fall 2015 Family Law LAWS 7105-001
Spring 2015 Parent, Child and State LAWS 7135-001
Fall 2014 Law and Mathamatics LAWS 6270-001
Fall 2014 Family Law LAWS 7105-001
Fall 2014 Seminar: Advanced Topics In Family Law LAWS 8235-001
Fall 2013 Civil Procedure LAWS 5303-803
Fall 2013 Family Law LAWS 7105-001
Spring 2013 Family Law LAWS 7105-001



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With our roots in Colorado and a global outlook, we are ...

a supportive and diverse educational and scholarly community in a place that inspires vigorous pursuit of ideas, critical analysis, contemplation, and civic engagement to advance knowledge about the law in an open, just society.

Our Mission

To be an outstanding public law school that: provides students with a state-of-the-art legal education and prepares them to serve wisely and with professionalism; advances the development of knowledge through scholarship, testing of new ideas, and challenges to the status quo; and serves as a vehicle and catalyst for meaningful public service, all of which deliver high value to our students and have positive impacts?both locally and globally?on the legal profession and society.