Dorit Rubinstein Reiss

Dorit Rubinstein Reiss is a Professor of Law and the James Edgar Hervey '50 Chair of Litigation at UC Hastings College of Law. She has also worked for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israeli Ministry of Justice's Department of Public Law.

A law professor specializing in torts and administrative law, since 2013 Reiss has become known for her work on legal issues regarding vaccination policies. Reiss has proposed that parents who don't vaccinate their children, including those who obtain legal exemptions, should face legal liability. She is also noted for her support of California Senate Bill 277, which cut back on exemptions to vaccination requirements for enrollment in California schools and daycare centers. She has expressed her views in various journals, panels and blogs.

She is a frequent contributor to academic journals, blogs and newspapers. Her work focuses on accountability, health care, social policies and law.

Career Dorit Reiss obtained her undergraduate degree in law and political science from the Faculty of Law at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She would later serve as editor-in-chief of the Law Review for the same institution. After her graduation, Reiss worked for the Israeli Ministry of Justice's Department of Public Law. Reiss received her PhD from the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program at UC Berkeley. While studying there, Reiss worked as a teaching assistant and won the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award.

Reiss says the birth of her son also motivated her to read parenting blogs in her spare time. In one of those blogs, Reiss says came across an article about the resurgence of measles and myths about the MMR vaccine. Reiss discovered that one of the readers of the article had posted a comment with common anti-vaccination claims. Reiss says that being familiar with how vaccine-preventable diseases used to affect and kill many people, she was shocked that someone would oppose vaccines. After that first encounter with anti-vaccine arguments, Reiss says she started reading more about the claims made by people opposing vaccines and the refutations provided by experts. She became convinced that the answers given by scientists were solid and powerful. She is also a member of the Vaccines Working Group on Ethics and Policy.

Legal advocacy regarding vaccination

Reiss's academic work has addressed some of the legal issues surrounding vaccination, one of her main arguments being that parents who do not vaccinate their children should be liable if their child transmits a vaccine-preventable disease to other people. The authors sent their proposal to California state Senators Ben Allen and Richard Pan.

Reiss has also expressed support for California Senate Bill 277, a bill that eliminated non-medical vaccine exemptions for children attending school and child care centers in California.

In April 2015, Reiss gave her testimony on SB 277 before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In her testimony, she argued that the legislature has the leeway to require school immunization, and that non-medical exemptions are unnecessary.