Members of the UCLA School of Law community are mourning the loss of longtime professor Stephen Munzer, who died on Nov. 30 at age 81 after a brief illness.

Munzer was a distinguished research professor and authority in law and philosophy who joined the law school’s faculty in 1982 and retired in 2014 – but hardly stopped writing, teaching, conducting research, and connecting with his colleagues. Many people among his family, coworkers, and former students have used the same word to describe him: “gentleman.”

Medium- and heavy-duty trucks are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Yet California’s policies to phase out fossil fuel-powered trucks in favor of zero-emission models have been undermined by recent federal actions, including a congressional vote to terminate California’s mandate on truck makers to produce zero-emission models and a rollback of many federal tax incentives for these vehicles. Furthermore, in January 2025 the state withdrew from U.S.

Members of UCLA School of Law’s Supreme Court Clinic earned the latest in a recent string of major successes when, in November, the justices issued an opinion in the case of Pitts v. Mississippi, siding with the clinic’s client in a matter involving the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment.