Steinzor taught administrative law, food safety law, and advanced courses on the regulatory system.
Rena Steinzor, JD, Edward M. Robertson Professor of Law, has retired after 30 years on the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law faculty. Steinzor taught administrative law, food safety law, and advanced courses on the regulatory system. In October 2024, the faculty voted to award her emeritus status.
“For three decades, Professor Steinzor has been a huge contributor to the intellectual environment at Maryland Carey Law and an inspiration for her students,” said Dean Renée Hutchins Laurent, JD. “We are grateful for her deep dedication to this law school and her fearless pursuit of justice.”
While Steinzor has stepped back from teaching, the distinguished professor, scholar, and environmental activist is far from done with her life’s work.
Steinzor’s retirement comes on the heels of the spring release of her latest book, "American Apocalypse: The Six Far-Right Groups Waging War on Democracy," in which she argues that groups including big business, the Tea Party, the Federalist Society, Fox News, white evangelicals, and militia groups are fighting a battle of attrition against the national government, with power, money, and fame as their central motivations.
The Maryland Carey Law community celebrated Steinzor at an event on Oct. 24 at which Steinzor discussed the book.
Beloved by students, Steinzor began her talk by dedicating "American Apocalypse" to the students who have taken her government law courses over the years.
Kaitlyn Johnson, JD ’24, was one of Steinzor’s research assistants for the book. Getting to collaborate with the professor had a huge impact on her, said Johnson, who conducted research on campaign finance law, particularly the Citizens United and SpeechNow.org Supreme Court decisions.
“Working as a research assistant for Professor Steinzor was an incredibly formative experience for me,” said the Class of 2024 graduate. “Professor Steinzor helped me to apply, and significantly improve upon, my newly developing legal research, writing, and analytical skills. Perhaps most importantly, this work helped me to bridge the gap between what I was studying in the classroom — legal cases and theory — with the real-world impact these cases actually have on our democracy and governmental institutions.”
"American Apocalypse" builds on three decades of important scholarship. Steinzor is the author of the books "Why Not Jail? Industrial Disasters, Corporate Malfeasance, and Government Inaction"; "The People’s Agents and the Battle to Protect the American Public: Special Interests, Government, and Threats to Health, Safety, and the Environment" (with Sidney Shapiro); and "Mother Earth and Uncle Sam: How Pollution and Hollow Government Hurt Our Kids." Additionally, she is editor, with Wendy Wagner, of "Rescuing Science from Politics," and, with Christopher Schroeder, of "A New Progressive Agenda for Public Health and the Environment."
She has written or co-written more than 50 scholarly articles in such areas as criminal culpability for recklessness that threatens public health, worker and consumer safety, and the environment; regulatory dysfunction in agencies assigned to protect public health, worker and consumer safety, and the environment; and environmental federalism, including so-called "unfunded mandates" imposed on state and local governments by the federal government. Her articles have been downloaded over 40,000 times.
Colleagues laud Steinzor for her impact on Maryland Carey Law and the nation.
"Rena Steinzor is not only a nationally recognized scholar of administrative law and the regulatory state, she's a dedicated institutional citizen, generous colleague, and good friend,” said Maryland Carey Law professor Paula Monopoli, JD. “While we'll miss her many contributions to the daily life of the law school, her important scholarship will continue to have an impact on the nation's policymakers and the safety of its citizens.”
In 2003, Steinzor became a founding member of the Center for Progressive Reform, a think tank now comprising some 60 scholars from universities across the United States. She served as the center’s president from 2008 to 2015.
In a recent tribute, the center’s policy director James Goodwin described Steinzor’s tenacious and honest approach to reform, writing:
“One of her key intuitions was how to short-circuit industry’s campaign to surreptitiously sabotage the regulatory system. The point of their move, of course, was to make it possible for industry to defeat broadly popular safeguards by covering their tracks in the minutiae of the rulemaking process. 'We’re not rolling back regulations, we’re maximizing net benefits' epitomizes this strategy.
“Rena’s response was to call BS — that is, to articulate with refreshing bluntness the practical consequences of their 'regulatory reforms.' This no doubt came as a surprise to industry. They were betting that the legacy think tanks on the left would take the bait and fight technocratic wonkery with still more technocratic wonkery, further removing the debate from the public. Not Rena, though. They were probably also counting on legacy think tanks falling back on academic politeness. Rena, however, recognized that, for think tanks such as the center, our expertise wouldn’t count for much if it couldn’t be translated into righteous outrage when called for.”
Indeed, Steinzor’s expertise has and continues to “count for much.” She has testified before Congress on several occasions, most recently regarding the impact of health, safety, and environmental regulations on the economy.
A 1976 graduate of Columbia Law School, Steinzor began her legal career at the Federal Trade Commission, where she was an attorney in the credit practices division, a special assistant to the director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, and an attorney advisor to Commissioner Patricia P. Bailey.
From there, she became staff counsel in 1983 for the Subcommittee on Commerce, Transportation, and Tourism of the Energy and Commerce Committee chaired by James Florio (D-N.J.) in the U.S. House of Representatives. Steinzor staffed Florio during the development and passage of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 and the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act. She also prepared legislation to reauthorize the Toxic Substances Control Act during the 98th Congress.
Before entering the academy in 1994, Steinzor was partner in charge of the environmental practice at Spiegel & McDiarmid, a Washington, D.C., law firm specializing in the representation of state and local government entities in the energy and environmental areas.