Dean Johnson has published extensively on immigration law and policy, racial identity, and civil rights. Published in 1999, his book How Did You Get to Be Mexican? A White/Brown Man's Search for Identity was nominated for the 2000 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.  Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink its Borders and Immigration Laws (2007), one of his most recent books, has influenced the national debate over immigration reform. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review, Dean Johnson earned an A.B. in economics from UC Berkeley. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and worked as an attorney at the international law firm of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe. Dean Johnson has served on the board of directors of Legal Services of Northern California since 1996; after serving as Vice President, he currently is President of the board of directors. In 2006, he was elected to the board of directors of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the leading Mexican-American civil rights organization in the United States. He served on the MALDEF board until 2011.

Dean Johnson joined the UC Davis law faculty in 1989 and was named Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in 1998 and Dean in 2008. He has taught a wide array of classes, including immigration law, civil procedure, complex litigation, Latinos and Latinas and the law, refugee law, and Critical Race Theory. In 1993, he was the recipient of the law school's Distinguished Teaching Award.

A regular participant in national and international conferences, Dean Johnson has also held many leadership positions in the Association of American Law Schools and is the recipient of many honors and awards. The Minority Groups Section of the Association of American Law Schools honored him with the Clyde Ferguson Award in 2004. In 2006, the Hispanic National Bar Association named him the Law Professor of the Year. He was named the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies 2008 Scholar of the Year. In 2003, Dean Johnson was elected to the American Law Institute.

• 2008 Scholar of the Year, National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies,.
• Professor of the Year, Hispanic National Bar Association, 2006.
• Mabie-Apallas Public Interest Law Chair, 2004.
• Clyde Ferguson Jr. Award for Outstanding Professor of the Year, Minority Groups Section of the Association of American Law Schools, 2004.
• Elected to the American Law Institute, 2003.
• Director, Chicana/o Studies Program at UC Davis School of Law, 2000.

• Immigration Law Professors Blog
• An Essay on the Nomination and Confirmation of the First Latina Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court:  Sonia Sotomayor as the "Wise Latina"?, (work in progress)
• How Racial Profiling in America Became the Law of the Land:  United States v. Brignoni-Ponce and Whren v. United States and the Need for Truly Rebellious Lawyering, 98 Georgetown Law Journal (forthcoming 2010)
• The Intersection of Race and Class in U.S. Immigration Law and Enforcement, Law & Contemporary Problems (forthcoming 2010)
• Proposition 187, in The Closed Border: An Encyclopedia of Anti-Immigration in the United States, (Kathleen Arnold, ed., forthcoming 2010)
• Latinos and the Law: Cases and Materials: The Need for Critical Analysis, 12 Harvard Latino Law Review 73 (2009) (symposium)
• National Institute for Latino Policy, Guest Commentary, The Gates Arrest, Racial Profiling and Latinos, (Aug. 7, 2009)
• Guest Blogger, Concurring Opinions, (July 2009)
• Yes, They're "Illegal," But They Contribute, Sacramento Bee, June 21, 2009, at 2E
• In Context, Sotomayor's Remarks on Race and Judging Aren't Controversial, Findlaw.com, June 2, 2009
• Following Souter, The Nation, May 25, 2009, Dean Johnson, along with other legal experts, responded to the question of who the ideal Supreme Court Justice would be.
• Book Review, Where We Live Now: Immigration and Race in the United States, by John Iceland (2009), in Law and Politics Book Review, vol. 19, no. 5 (May. 2009)
• A Handicapped. Not “Sleeping,” Giant:  The Devastating Impact of the Initiative Process on Latina/o and Immigrant Communities, 96 California Law Review 1259 (2008)
• Beyond the Borders, Building and Construction Southwest, Dec. 2008 at 8
• Minorities, Immigrant and Otherwise, Yale Law Journal Pocket Part (Oct. 2008)
• An Assessment of LatCrit Theory Ten Years After, 83 Indiana Law Journal 1151(2008) (with Keith Aoki) (symposium)
• Hurricane Katrina: Lessons About Immigrants in the Modern Administrative State, 45 Houston Law Review 11 (2008) (endowed Lecture)
• The Story of Whren v. United States: The Song Remains the Same, in Race and Law Stories 41, (Devon Carbado & Rachel F. Moran, editors, Foundation Press, 2008)
• Social Science Research Council, From King to Obama: Race in America, Spring 2008 Open Borders, Integrated Economy, Sacramento Bee, Nov. 18, 2007, at E2
• Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink Its Borders and Immigration Laws, NYU Press, 2007 (Critical America Series)
• Protecting National Security Through More Liberal Admission of Immigrants, 2007 University of Chicago Legal Forum 157 (symposium)
• Protecting National Security Through More Liberal Admission of Immigrants, NEXUS: Journal of Opinion (Oct. 8, 2007)
• Who Cares About How We Treat Immigrants?, LTVN The Legal Television Network published Jan. 3, 2007
• The Immigrant Rights Marches of 2006 and the Prospects for a New Civil Rights Movement, 42 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 99 (2007) (co-authored with Bill Ong Hing)
• Taking the "Garbage" Out in Tulia: Racial Profiling and the Taboo on Black/White Romance in the "War on Drugs", 2007 Wisconsin Law Review 239 (symposium)
• Immigration Reform, National Security After September 11, and the Future of North American Integration, 91 Minnesota Law Review 1369 (2007) (co-authored with Bernard Trujillo) (symposium)
• The Legacy of Jim Crow: The Enduring Taboo of Black-White Romance, 84 Texas Law Review 739 (2006)
• Book Review of Immigrant America: A Portrait, by Alejandro Portes and Ruben G. Rumbaut (2006), Law and Politics Book Review, Vol. 16 No. 12 (Dec 2006), available at
• Radical Immigration Reform: Opening Up the Borders?, LTVN The Legal Television Network published on Dec. 18, 2006.
• Is a New Civil Rights Movement Emerging?, Diverse Online (May 4, 2006)
• We Shouldn't Make Policies We May Regret: Mexican Repatriation of 1930's Should Warn Us Against Quick Fixes, Houston Chronicle, Jan. 7, 2006
• Guest Contributor , Nov. 2005-Jan. 2006
• Book Review of Jose Luis Morin, Latina/o Rights and Justice in the United States, (2005), in 4 Latino Studies 169 (2006)
• Comments on Raven Lecture on Access to Justice , by Georgetown Law Center Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff's (Mar. 26, 2006)
• National Identity in a Multicultural Nation: The Challenge of Immigration Law and Immigrants, 03 Michigan Law Review 1347 (2005) (2005 Survey of Books related to the Law) (with Bill Ong Hing)
• The Forgotten "Repatriation" of Persons of Mexican Ancestry and lessons for the "War on Terror", 26 Pace Law Review 1 (2005)(endowed lecture)
• Maria and Joseph Plasencia's Lost Weekend: The Case of Landon v. Plasencia, in Immigration Stories 221, (David A. Martin & Peter H. Schuck eds., Foundation Press, 2005)
• Hernandez v. Texas: Legacies of Justice and Injustice, 25 UCLA Chicano-Latino Law Review 153 (2005) (symposium issue)(reprinted in "Colored Men" and "Hombres Aqui": Hernandez v. Texas and the Emergence of Mexican American Lawering 53 (Michael A. Olivas ed., Arte Publico Press, 2006)
• Cry Me a River: The Limits of A Systemic Analysis of Affirmative Action in American Law Schools, 7 African-American Law & Policy Report (UC Berkeley-Boalt Hall) 1 (2005)
• Immigration and Civil Rights After September 11: The Impact on California - An Introduction, 38 U.C. Davis. Law Review 599 (2005)
• African American and Latino Cooperation in Challenging Racial Profiling, in Neither Enemies Nor Friends: Latinos, Blacks, Afro-Latinos, (Anani Dzidzienyo & Suzanne Oboler editors, 2005, Palgrave MacMillan)
• Book Review of John D. Skrenty, The Minority Rights Revolution, (2002), in 47 American Journal of Legal History 315 (2005)
• Entries for Latino Immigration and Intermarriage in 2 Encyclopedia Latina: History, Culture, and Society in the United States, 344, 371 (Ilan Stavans, ed., 2005)
• Get Real About Migrant Workers, Sacramento Bee, May 13, 2005.
• Stick to Fighting Crime, Boston Review, Dec.2004/Jan. 2005, at 17
• Book Review of Mark Dow, American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons, (2004), in 6 Journal of International Migration and Integration 154 (2005)
• The "Huddled Masses" Myth: Immigration and Civil Rights, Temple University Press, 2004
• Roll Over Beethoven: "A Critical Examination of Recent Writing about Race", 82 Texas Law Review 717 (2004)
• The Last Twenty Five Years of Affirmative Action?, 23 Constitutional Commentary 171 (2004) (symposium) (reprinted as adapted in 29 Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 171 (2004))
• A Principle Approach to the Quest for Racial Diversity on the Judiciary, 5 Michigan Journal of Race & Law 5 (2004).
• International Human Rights Class Actions: New Frontiers for Group Litigation, 2004 Mich. St. L. Rev. 643
• Foreword: LatCrit Goes International, 16 Fla. J. Int'l L. x (2004)
• Law and Politics in Post-Modern California: Coalition or Conflict Between African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latina/os?, 4 Ethnicities 381 (2004) (special issue) (Linda Trinh Vo & Rodolfo D. Torres eds)
• The Continuing Latino Quest for Full Membership and Equal Citizenship: Legal Progress, Social Setbacks, and Political Promise, in The Columbia History of Latinos in the United States Since 1960, 391 (David Gutiérrez editor, 2004, Columbia University Press)
• Integrating Racial Justice into the Civil Procedure Survey Course, 54 Journal of Legal Education 242 (2004)
• Racial Profiling After September 11: The Department of Justice’s 2003 Guidelines, 50 Loyola Law Review 67 (2004) (symposium)
• Open Borders?, 51 UCLA Law Review 193 (2003) (reprinted, as adapted, in 9 Bender’s Immigration Bulletin 256 (March 1, 2004))
• Asian Exclusion Legislation, in Encyclopedia of the Great Plains 139 (David J. Wishart ed., 2004).
• Strom Thurmond’s Daughter and the Enduring Taboo on Black/White Marriages, S.F. Chronicle, Jan. 4, 2004, at D5.
• Civil Liberties Post-September 11: A Time of Danger, A Time of Opportunity, 2 Seattle Journal for Social Justice 3 (2003) (symposium)
• The Case for African American and Latina/o Cooperation in Challenging Race Profiling, 55 Florida Law Review 341 (2003) (symposium)
• The Struggle for Civil Rights: The Need for, and Impediments to, Political Coalitions Among and Within Minority Groups, 63 Louisiana Law Review 759 (2003) (symposium)
• Immigration, Civil Rights, and Coalitions for Social Justice, 1 Hastings Race & Poverty Law Journal 181 (2003)
• Struck by Lightning? Interracial Intimacy and Racial Justice, 25 Human Rights Quarterly 528 (2003) (with Kristina L. Burrows) (published as adapted in 29 Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 219 (2004))
• September 11 and Mexican Immigrants: Collateral Damage Comes Home, 52 DePaul Law Review 849 (2003) (symposium contribution)
• The End of “Civil Rights” as We Know It?: Immigration and the New Civil Rights Law, 49 UCLA Law Review 1481 (2002) (reprinted in 23 Immigration & Nationality Review 587 (2003)
• Book Review of Gendered and U.S. Immigration: Contemporary Trends, (Pierette Hondagneu-Sotelo ed., 2003), in Contemporary Sociology 33(3) (2004): 304.
• A Defense of the Estrada Filibuster: A Judicial Nominee that the Senate Cannot Judge, FindLaw Legal Commentary, www.findlaw.com, Feb. 27, 2003
• Race, Civil Rights, and Immigration Law After September 11, 2001: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims, Civil Rights in Peril: The Targeting of Arabs and Muslims 9, Elaine C. Hagopian, ed., Pluto Press (2004)
• Latina/os and the Political Process: The Need for Critical Inquiry, 81 Oregon Law Review 917 (2002) (symposium contribution)
• The Moral High Ground? The Relevance of International Law to Racial Discrimination in the U.S. Immigration Laws, in Moral Imperialism: A Critical Anthology, 285 (Berta Esperanza Truyol-Hernández editor, 2002, New York University Press)
• U.S. Border Enforcement: Drugs, Migrants, and the Rule of Law, 47 Villanova Law Review 897 (2002) (symposium on “New Voices on the War on Drugs”)
• Race and the Immigration Laws: The Need for Critical Inquiry, in Crossroads, Directions, and a New Critical Race Theory, 187 (Francisco Valdes, Jerome McCristal Culp, & Angela P. Harris eds., Temple University Press, 2002)
• On the Appointment of a Latina/o to the Supreme Court, 5 Harvard Latino Law Review 1 (2002) (symposium) (published concurrently in 13 Berkeley La Raza Law Journal 1 (Boalt Hall) (2002))
• Immigration Law Practice in Oxford Companion to American Law, 411 (Kermit L. Hall, 2002)
• The First Latino Supreme Court Justice?, FindLaw Legal Commentary, www.findlaw.com, Oct. 17, 2002
• Race Profiling: Back to the Future?, California Bar Journal, July 2002, at 8
• On the 30th Anniversary of the Chicano-Latino Law Review, 23 UCLA Chicano-Latino Law Review 1 (2002)
• In Memoriam: Daniel J. Dykstra, 35 U.C. Davis Law Review 519 (2002)
• Comparative Racialization: Culture and National Origin in the Latina/o Communities, 78 Denver University Law Review 633 (2001) (symposium)
• A Reader on Race, Civil Rights, and America Law: A Multiracial Approach, Carolina Academic Press, 2001 (co-authored with Timothy Davis & George A. Martínez)
• Legal Immigration in the 21st Century, in Blueprints for an Ideal Legal Immigration Policy, 37 (Richard D. Lamm & Alan Simpson eds., 2001)
• The Case Against Race Profiling in Immigration Enforcement, Human Rights (American Bar Association), Winter, 2001, at 23
• Regional Integration in North America and Europe: Lessons about Civil Rights and Equal Citizenship, 9 University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review 33 (2000-01) (symposium)
• Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans, and LatCrit Theory: Commonalities and Differences Between Latina/o Experiences, 6 Michigan Journal of Race & Law 107 (2001) (reprinted in reprinted in 22 Immigration and Nationality Review 459 (2001)
• The Case Against Race Profiling in Immigration Enforcement, 78 Washington University Law Quarterly 675 (2000) (published in adapted form in Human Rights, Winter 2001, at 23) (reprinted in 21 Immigration & Nationality Law Review 531 (2000))
• Race Matters: Immigration Law and Policy Scholarship, Law in the Ivory Tower, and the Legal Indifference of the Race Critique, 2000 University of Illinois Law Review 525
• The Rodrigo Chronicles, Latino/as, and Racial Oppression: A Blueprint for the Next Generation, Harvard Latino Law Review 47 (2000) (symposium)
• Race and Immigration Law and Enforcement: A Response To “Is There a Plenary Power Doctrine?", 14 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 289 (2000) (symposium)
• Foreword – Celebrating LatCrit Theory: What Do We Do When the Music Stops?, 33 U.C. Davis Law Review 753 (2000) (symposium)
• Discrimination by Proxy: The Case of Proposition 227 and the Ban on Bilingual Education, 33 U.C. Davis Law Review 1227 (2000) (co-authored with George A. Martínez) (symposium)
• Race, Immigration and International Law, Proceedings of the 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, March 24-27, 1999, 93 ASIL Proc. 214 (2000)
• Book Review of Ethic Diversity and Public Policy: A Comparative Inquiry, (Crawford Young ed., 1998), 1 Journal of International Migration and Integration (Canada) 512 (2000)
• Lawyering for Social Change: What’s a Lawyer to Do?, 5 Michigan Journal of Race & Law 201 (1999) (symposium)
• Crossover Dreams: Chicana/o Studies Activism and Scholarship and the Roots of LatCrit Theory, 53 University of Miami Law Review 1143 (1999) (co-authored with George A. Martínez) (symposium)
• Foreword -- Dedication of The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Minority Issues, 1 The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Minority Issues 1 (1999)
• Pride and Prejudice, Latina, June 1999, at 114
• Race, The Immigration Laws, and Domestic Race Relations: A "Magic Mirror" Into the Heart of Darkness, 73 Indiana Law Journal 1111 (1998) (reprinted in 19 Immigration and Nationality Review 585 (1999), 2 Immigration Law and the Constitution 217 (Garland Publishing, Gabriel J. Chin, Victor Romero, & Michael Scaperlanda eds., 2000))
• Clinical Legal Education and the U.C. Davis Immigration Law Clinic: Putting Theory Into Practice and Practice Into Theory, 51 SMU Law Review 1423 (1998) (co-authored with Amagda Pérez) (symposium on Clinical Legal Education)
• Immigration and Latino Identity, 19 UCLA Chicano-Latino Law Review 197 (1998) (symposium)(reprinted in 19 Immigration and Nationality Review 569 (1999))
• An Essay on Immigration, Citizenship, and U.S./Mexico Relations: The Tale of Two Treaties, 5 Southwestern Journal of Law & Trade in the Americas 121 (1998) (symposium)(reprinted in The Legacy of the Mexican and Spanish-American Wars: Legal, Literary, and Historical Perspectives (Gary D. Keller & Cordelia Candelaria eds., Bilingual Press, 2000))
• Racial Mixture, Identity Choice, and Civil Rights, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Civil Rights Journal 44 (fall 1998) (review essay)
• Racial Hierarchy, Asian Americans and Latinos as "Foreigners," and Social Change: Is Law the Way to Go?, 76 Oregon Law Review 347 (1997) (symposium)
• “Melting Pot" or "Ring of Fire"?: Assimilation and the Mexican-American Experience, 85 California Law Review 1259 (1997) (published concurrently in 10 La Raza Law Journal 173 (1998) (symposium)(excerpted in The Latino/a Condition: A Critical Reader 427 (Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic eds., NYU Press, 1998))
• The New Nativism: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, in Immigrants Out! The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States, 165 (Juan F. Perea ed., NYU Press, 1997)
• Some Thoughts on the Future of Latino Legal Scholarship, 2 Harvard Latino Law Review, 101 (1997) (symposium)(excerpted in The Latino/a Condition: A Critical Reader 198, 488 (Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic eds., 1998))
• The Antiterrorism Act, The Immigration Reform Act, and Ideological Regulation in the Immigration Laws: Important Lessons For Citizens and Noncitizens, 28 St. Mary's Law Journal 833 (1997) (symposium)
• Book Review of Keith Fitzgerald, The Face of the Nation: Immigration, the State and the National Identity, 31 International Migration Review 189 (1997)
• “Aliens" and the U.S. Immigration Laws: The Social and Legal Construction of Nonpersons, 28 University of Miami Inter-American Law Review, 263 (1996-97) (symposium) (reprinted in 18 Immigration and Nationality Review 3 (1999)
• Why Alienage Jurisdiction? Historical Foundations and Modern Justifications for Federal Jurisdiction Over Disputes Involving Noncitizens, 21 Yale Journal of International Law 1 (1996) (reprinted in 17 Immigration and Nationality Review 389 (1995-96))
• Fear of an "Alien Nation"? Race, Immigration, and Immigrants, 7 Stanford Law & Policy Review 111 (1996) (symposium)
• Racial Restrictions on Naturalization: The Recurring Intersection of Race and Gender in Immigration and Citizenship Law, 11 Berkeley Women's Law Journal 142 (1996)
• Proposition 187: The Nativist Campaign, The Impact on the Latino Community, and the Future, Julian Samora Research Institute Working Paper No. 15 (June 1996)
• Public Benefits and Immigration: The Intersection of Immigration Status, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class, 42 UCLA Law Review 1509 (1995) (symposium)(excerpted in The Latino/a Condition: A Critical Reader 376 (Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic eds., 1998) and Critical Race Feminism: A Reader (Adrien Katherine Wing 2d ed., 2002)) (reprinted in 17 Immigration and Nationality Review 457 (1995-96))
• An Essay on Immigration Politics, Popular Democracy, and California's Proposition 187: The Political Relevance and Legal Irrelevance of Race, 70 Washington Law Review 629 (1995) (symposium)(excerpted in The Latino/a Condition: A Critical Reader 110 (Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic eds., 1998))
• Death of a Salesman?: Forum Shopping and Outcome Determination Under International Shoe, 28 University of California at Davis Law Review 769 (1995) (symposium)(co-authored with Christopher D. Cameron)
• Civil Rights and Immigration: Challenges for the Latino Community in the Twenty-First Century, 8 La Raza Law Journal (Boalt Hall) 42 (1995) (symposium)
• California's `Civil Rights Initiative' Deserves Our Full Attention, Hispanic Business, May 1995, at 8
• Free Trade and Closed Borders: NAFTA and Mexican Immigration to the United States, 27 U.C. Davis Law Review 937 (1994) (symposium)(reprinted in 16 Immigration and Nationality Review 465 (1994-95))
• Responding to the "Litigation Explosion": The Plain Meaning of Executive Branch Primacy Over Immigration, 71 North Carolina Law Review 413 (1993)
• Los Olvidados: Images of the Immigrant, Political Power of Noncitizens, and Immigration Law and EnforcementResponding to the "Litigation Explosion": The Plain Meaning of Executive Branch Primacy Over Immigration, 1993 Brigham Young University Law Review 1139
• Bridging the Gap: Some Thoughts About Interstitial Lawmaking and the Federal Securities Laws, 48 Washington & Lee Law Review 879 (1991) (contribution to Annual Review of Securities and Commodities Law) (reprinted in Securities Law Review (1992) (Donald C. Langevoort, ed.))
• INS v. Elias-Zacarias: Its Disturbing, But Limited, Implications, in Mark Silverman et al., Winning Asylum Cases 3app-1 (1992 & 1994 Supplement)
• The Supreme Court's Decision in INS v. Elias-Zacarias: Is There Any "There" There?, 9 Interpreter Releases 285 (1992) (co-authored with Deborah Anker & Carolyn P. Blum) (reprinted as adapted in 4 International Journal of Refugee Law 267 (1992))
• Court Restricts Ability of Immigrants to Obtain Political Asylum, Update on Law-Related Education, at 37 (Spring/Summer 1992)
• Judging From a Passing Glance, The Recorder (San Francisco), July 15, 1992, at 7, col. 1
• A "Hard Look" at the Executive Branch's Asylum Decisions, 1991 Utah Law Review 279
• Liability for Reckless Misrepresentations and Omissions Under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 59 University of Cincinnati Law Review 667 (1991)
• From Refugees to Rubber Stamps, The Recorder (San Francisco), Sept. 18, 1991, at 4, col. 2
• Reconsidering Refugees, The Recorder (San Francisco), Sept. 10, 1991, at 4, col. 2
• The Truth and Consequences of the Common Law as Social Propositions, (Book Review), 23 University of California at Davis Law Review 903 (1990)
• Joint Ventures and the Federal Antitrust Laws: Determining Which Combinations Foster Competition, The Computer Lawyer, Vol. 3, No. 7 (July 1986)
• Case Comment, The Supreme Court, 1981 Term, 96 Harvard Law Review 106 (1982) (Rogers v. Lodge, 458 U.S. 613 (1982))
• Case Comment, The Supreme Court, 1981 Term, 96 Harvard Law Review 278 (1982) (American Tobacco Co. v. Patterson, 456 U.S. 63 (1982) and Connecticut v. Teal, 457 U.S. 440 (1982))
• Note, In Defense of Tribal Sovereign Immunity, 95 Harvard Law Review 1058 (1982)