Morgan Carmen ’24 was named the winner of the 2024 William J. Stuntz Memorial Award for Justice, Human Dignity, and Compassion. The Stuntz Award recognizes a graduating student who has demonstrated an exemplary commitment to those principles while at Harvard Law School.
As president of the Harvard Law School student organization, the Alliance for Reproductive Justice, Carmen was recognized by numerous nominators for her leadership, advocacy, and “unwavering commitment” to supporting reproductive health. In the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion, she worked to organize students to support additional opportunities to study and practice reproductive health law and policy. One of her nominators wrote that Carmen’s “magnetism made people care more about an issue of justice. That to me is the epitome of a law student’s contribution of service.”
In addition to the many existing curricular offerings, Harvard Law School recently launched two new opportunities for students to participate in reproductive health law clinical work. The first is through a new area of focus within the Health Law and Policy Clinic, overseen by Carmel Shachar J.D./M.P.H. ’10, faculty director of the clinic. The second is through an independent clinical placement with a local reproductive law nonprofit, Reproductive Equity Now. Carmen and several other students took advantage of these additional opportunities.
Shachar says: “Carmen represents the future of reproductive justice advocacy in her leadership, focus, and drive to ensure that people get access to the care they need and the ability to be masters of their reproductive destinies.”
Carmen, who has been interning at Ms. Studios, has recently published several articles on reproductive health issues in Ms. Magazine. After graduation, her work in the field will continue as an attorney with the newly created Massachusetts Attorney General’s Reproductive Justice Unit, the first of its kind in the nation.
The Stuntz Memorial Award, established in 2011, is given in honor of the late William Stuntz, a renowned scholar of criminal justice at Harvard Law School and a teacher much beloved by students and colleagues.
