Biography

Shirin Sinnar joined the law school as a Stanford Law Fellow in 2009. She previously served as a public interest attorney with the Asian Law Caucus and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of San Francisco, where she represented individuals facing discrimination based on government national security policies and unlawful employment practices. Sinnar served as a law clerk to the Honorable Warren J. Ferguson of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She is a graduate of Stanford Law School (J.D. 2003), Cambridge University (M. Phil. International Relations 1999), and Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges (A.B. History 1998). Sinnar serves on the steering committee of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education and on the board of Asuda-USA, a developing nonprofit targeting domestic violence.

Publications

• Returning Home: How U.S. Government Practices Undermine Civil Rights at Our Nation’s Doorstep (2009) (lead author) (Asian Law Caucus/Stanford Law School Immigrants’ Rights Clinic report)
• the OFAC List: How a Treasury Department Terrorist Watchlist Ensnares Everyday Consumers (2007) (Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area report)
• Note, Patriotic or Unconstitutional? The Mandatory Detention of Aliens under the USA Patriot Act, 55 STAN. L. REV. 1419 (2003)
• Book Note, 38 STAN. J. INT’L L. 319 (2002) (reviewing CRAIG SCOTT (ed.), TORTURE AS TORT (2001))

Research Interests

Civil rights and national security law, antidiscrimination law, international human rights, international law/comparative law .