WASHINGTON � The Supreme Court's decision Monday that individual retirement accounts are protected from creditors in bankruptcy cases marks the second time in less than a week that a small group of Stanford University law students has won a change in U.S. law.
Their first victory came Wednesday, when the justices expanded the rights of older workers to sue for age discrimination. That decision came in a Mississippi case that was appealed to the high court through the students' efforts.
"It can't get any better than this," Stanford law professor Pamela S. Karlan, one of the founders of the law school's Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, said Monday after learning of the unanimous ruling in the bankruptcy case.
Two years ago, Karlan and Washington lawyer Thomas C. Goldstein had the idea of creating a law clinic that would allow students to learn about the Supreme Court by working on real cases. It was limited to nine students a semester.
Thomas Goldstein is of Goldstein & Howe, the firm that brings us SCOTUSblog. Congratulations to all. Details here from the Los Angeles Times.