2026 Goettel Prize for Faculty Scholarship Awarded to Professor Emily Gold Waldman

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Professor Emily Gold Waldman has been awarded the 2026 Goettel Prize for Faculty Scholarship for her article, Parents at the Schoolhouse Gate, published in the North Carolina Law Review, 104 N.C. L. Rev. 773 (2026).

The Goettel Prize was created in 2004 to encourage and recognize outstanding scholarship by members of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law faculty. Each year, members of the tenured and tenure-track faculty are invited to submit their work for consideration (on an anonymous basis) by a selection committee of outside reviewers. This year's committee consisted of three distinguished professors: Andrea Freeman, Second Century Chair Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School; Jordan Blair Woods, James E. Rogers Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona; and Heather Payne, Carter C. Kissell Professor of Law, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University.

“Professor Waldman’s Parents at the Schoolhouse Gate takes on an exceptionally timely and important area of law, offering thoughtful analysis of the evolving relationship among parents, students, and public schools,” said Professor Margot J. Pollans, Associate Dean for Faculty Development at Haub Law. “Emily’s work exemplifies the rigorous, relevant scholarship that distinguishes our faculty, and I am delighted to see her recognized with this year’s Goettel Prize.”

In Parents at the Schoolhouse Gate, Professor Waldman examines the evolving constitutional landscape surrounding parental rights in public education. The article analyzes the implications of the United States Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which held that parents were entitled under the Free Exercise Clause to opt their children out of certain elementary school lessons that conflicted with their religious beliefs. It also explores the rise of “parents’ rights”-focused organizations and the new types of arguments they are making under the Free Speech Clause.

“I am so honored to receive the Goettel Prize and to have Parents at the Schoolhouse Gate recognized by this year’s selection committee,” said Professor Waldman. “I started writing the article in 2024, and then things started changing so quickly in the courts—especially with the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Mahmoud—that I had to substantially update it several times! I hope that the piece contributes to the ongoing conversation about parental rights, student interests, and the role of public schools.”

Professor Waldman joined the Haub Law faculty in 2006 and teaches Constitutional Law, Law and Education, Employment Law Survey, and Civil Procedure. Her scholarship focuses on constitutional law, education law, and the law of the workplace. She is also the Faculty Director of Haub Law’s Federal Judicial Honors Program. Notably, this 2026 award marks Professor Waldman’s second Goettel Prize for Faculty Scholarship; she previously received the award in 2008 for her article "Returning to Hazelwood's Core: A New Approach to Restrictions on School-Sponsored Speech," 60 Fla. L. Rev. 63 (2008).