Michael Vastine
Visiting Professor of Law
B.M., Oberlin Conservatory of Music
M.M., Temple University Graduate School of Music
JD, Georgetown University Law Center
Phone: 727-562-7621
Email: [email protected]
Office: Clinic and Experiential Learning House - 6131 13th Avenue S, Gulfport, Florida 33707
Courses
Summer Remote Certified Legal Intern (CLI) Clinic, Individual Internship, Family Law Internship
Biography
Michael Vastine joined the faculty of Stetson University College of Law in Summer 2024, as Distinguished Visiting Director of Clinical and Experiential Education. He previously taught at St. Thomas University College of Law (Miami) from 2004 to 2024, as tenured Professor of Law, Director of the Immigration Clinic, and Director of Clinical Education. Professor Vastine is a leader in the field of clinical legal education, serving in appointed positions of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) and the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA). A nationally recognized expert, leading litigator, and academic in the fields of immigration law and immigrant defense, he has also held numerous elected and appointed leadership at the national level of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the AILA South Florida Chapter, including a term as Chair. In 2013, he received the AILA (National) Elmer Fried Award for Excellence in Teaching and in 2022 was named to the inaugural AALS Pro Bono Honor Roll.
Professor Vastine has litigated extensively before the U.S. Courts of Appeals, in cases arising from his clinical practice and primarily construing the “categorical approach” for determining the immigration consequences of crimes, including foundational cases on questions of mens rea elements, definitions of controlled substances, trafficking, firearms, and crimes involving moral turpitude. He also argued the Florida Supreme Court case establishing the post-Padilla v. Kentucky standard for effective criminal defense of immigrants. He has separately authored numerous amicus curiae briefs for AILA and other organizations in litigation of similar issues at the Courts of Appeals and, occasionally, before the U.S. Supreme Court, in addition to work challenging the constitutionality of the prolonged detention of immigrants.
Professor Vastine has published widely in law journals, on related issues and their connection to clinical legal education. A frequent public speaker and leader of attorney education, he regularly chairs conferences, has produced dozens of practice advisories, and has made hundreds of conference presentations on behalf of the immigration bar and clinical professors.
Law Review Articles
The Right to Deport Immigrants Bearing Firearms Convictions Shall Not Be Infringed?
Contemplating the consequences for immigrants’ firearm crimes, in light of Bruen, 66 Howard L.J. 475 (2023)
Making Drug-related Deportability 1914 Again? How a strict “categorical approach” to the CSA would eliminate unpredictable agency interpretation of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 18 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 253 (2020)
An Immigration Lawyer Walked into a Barr: The Impact of Trump’s Justice Department on the Defense of Criminal Immigrants, 25 Barry L. Rev. 57 (2020)
From Bristol, to Hollywood, to a Land Far, Far Away: Considering the Immigration Consequences of Statutory Rape, 7 Rutgers J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 289 (2010)
Good Things Come to Those Who Wait? Reconsidering Indeterminate and Indefinite Detention as Tools in U.S. Immigration Policy, 5 Intercultural Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 125 (2010)
Give me your tired, your poor… and your convicted? Teaching “Justice” to Law Students by Defending Criminal Immigrants in Removal Proceedings, University of Maryland Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class, 10 RRGC 341 (2010)
Is Your Client Prejudiced? Litigating Ineffective-Assistance-of-Counsel Claims in Immigration Matters Arising in the Eleventh Circuit, University of Miami Law Review, 62 U. Miami L. Rev. 1063 (2008)
Being Careful What You Wish For: Divisible Statutes – Identifying a Non-Deportable Solution to a Non-Citizen’s Criminal Problem, Campbell University Law Review, 29 Campbell L. Rev. 203 (2007)
Book Chapter
Native | Emigrant: The Curious Immigration Case of Forcibly Displaced Native Americans and Examination of the Rights of the Wampanoag Tribal Descendants in Bermuda, in Human Flourishing: The End of Law. Essays in Honor of Siegfried Wiessner, Koninklijke Brill NV (2023)