Margo Schlanger

Margo Schlanger is the University of Michigan's Wade H. and Dores M. McCree Collegiate Professor of Law, and the founder and director of the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse. Professor Schlanger earned her JD from Yale in 1993, and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She teaches and writes about constitutional law, torts, civil rights, and incarceration. She is the author of dozens of scholarly articles addressing these topics, and the lead author of Incarceration and the Law. She also served as reporter for the ABA’s Standards on the Treatment of Prisoners. Professor Schlanger has extensive experience in civil rights and prison and immigration reform. She led USDA’s Discrimination Financial Assistance Program, which in 2024 provided $2 billion to 43,000 people who experienced discrimination in USDA farm lending. Previously, she was class counsel in Hamama v. Adducci, a national lawsuit on behalf of Iraqi nationals the Trump Administration sought to deport, and she was the monitor for a statewide settlement dealing with deaf prisoners in Kentucky. In 2010 and 2011, she was the presidentially appointed DHS Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Professor Schlanger is the 2025-2026 Carl F. Cranor Family Visiting Scholar.