Michael Ulrich
Profiles

Michael Richard Ulrich, JD, MPH

Associate Professor, Health Law, Policy & Management - Boston University School of Public Health

(617) 358-3174
Talbot
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Biography

Michael R. Ulrich is an Associate Professor at Boston University’s School of Public Health and School of Law. His research focuses on the intersection of public health, constitutional law, bioethics, and social justice, emphasizing the role of law in the health outcomes of marginalized and underserved populations. Professor Ulrich’s scholarship has appeared in leading legal journals including Stanford Law Review, The Yale Law Journal Forum, William & Mary Law Review, Cardozo Law Review, UC Law Journal, and SMU Law Review, as well as internationally recognized peer-reviewed journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, The British Medical Journal, The American Journal of Bioethics, and JAMA Pediatrics. He coauthored the leading casebook Public Health Law, in its 4th Edition, and served as guest editor for an issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics on the Second Amendment and gun violence. Awards and recognition for Professor Ulrich’s research include selection as a Public Law Junior Scholar by the American Constitution Society, selection as a Health Law Scholar by the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, and receiving the Translational Science Award from the Research Society for the Prevention of Firearm-Related Harms. He has also been given multiple “Excellence in Teaching” awards for his work in the classroom, where he teaches Public Health Law, Mental Health Law, and Health Law & Policy.

Professor Ulrich has coauthored and been cited in amicus briefs at every level of the judiciary on the Second Amendment, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive justice, and contagious disease control, including serving as lead author for Professors of Law, Medicine, and Public Health in the United States Supreme Court cases United States v. Skrmetti and Chiles v. Salazar. As an interdisciplinary scholar seeking to reach a wide range of audiences, Professor Ulrich has shared his expertise on television programs for ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, and NBC News, as well as serving as a guest on NPR and several podcasts. He has written for, been quoted in, or cited in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, USA Today, TIME, NPR, Bloomberg Law, The Hill, and Slate, as well as news sources in France, India, and the Philippines. Professor Ulrich serves as the Assistant Director of Boston University Center for Health Law, Ethics, & Human Rights, Committee Member for Boston University School of Law’s Health Law Program, Director of Boston University School of Public Health’s Human Rights and Social Justice Certificate, Core Faculty in Boston University’s Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases, and Research Faculty for Boston University School of Public Health’s Pregnancy Study Online, while maintaining affiliations with Yale Law School’s Solomon Center for Health Law & Policy and University of Connecticut’s Center for Advancing Research, Methods, and Scholarship in Gun Injury Prevention. He also serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics and the Board of Directors for the Boston Chapter of the American Constitution Society.

Prior to joining Boston University, Professor Ulrich was a Research Scholar, Senior Fellow in Health Law, & Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, where he helped launch and run the Solomon Center for Health Law & Policy at Yale Law School. He has also worked as a bioethicist in the Division of AIDS at the National Institutes of Health.

Education

  • University of Maryland, JD Field of Study: Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights
  • Harvard School of Public Health, MPH Field of Study: Public Health
  • University of Maryland, BS Field of Study: Engineering

Websites

Classes Taught

  • SPHLW854
  • SPHLW952
  • SPHPH719
  • SPHPM931

Publications

  • Published on 12/23/2025

    Rivara FP, Richmond TS, Hargarten S, Branas CC, Rowhani-Rahbar A, Webster D, Richardson J, Ayanian JZ, Boggan D, Braga AA, Buggs SAL, Cerdá M, Chen F, Chitkara A, Christakis DA, Crifasi C, Dawson L, deRoon-Cassini TA, Dicker R, Erete S, Galea S, Hemenway D, La Vigne N, Levine AS, Ludwig J, Maani N, McCarthy RL, Patton DU, Quick JD, Ranney ML, Rimanyi E, Ross JS, Sakran JV, Sampson RJ, Song Z, Tucker J, Ulrich MR, Vargas L, Wilcox RB, Wilson N, Zimmerman MA. Toward a Safer World by 2040: The JAMA Summit Report on Reducing Firearm Violence and Harms. JAMA. 2025 Dec 23; 334(24):2208-2219. PMID: 41182880.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 11/1/2025

    Turban JL, Ulrich MR. Chiles v Salazar-Conversion Effort Bans and Free Speech. JAMA Pediatr. 2025 Nov 01; 179(11):1141-1142. PMID: 40892396.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 9/15/2025

    Ulrich MR, Devaney C. Mitigating Firearm Suicide with Trusted Messengers in Health Care. J Law Med Ethics. 2025; 53(3):452-453. PMID: 40947119.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 9/9/2025

    Ulrich MR. Politicians as Clinicians: Skrmetti and Supreme Court-Sanctioned Intrusion on the Practice of Medicine. JAMA. 2025 Sep 09; 334(10):855-856. PMID: 40773173.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 9/1/2025

    Ulrich MR & Khanna A. Policing Gender: The Interest Convergence of Women's and Transgender Rights. Journal of Gender, Race & Justice. 2025; 28(3):585-603.

     Read At: Custom
  • Published on 7/30/2025

    Ulrich MR. Consistently Inconsistent. Penn Law's Regulatory Review. 2025.

     Read At: Custom
  • Published on 7/1/2025

    Mariner WK, Annas GJ, Huberfeld N, Ulrich MR. Public Health Law, 4th Edition. Carolina Academic Press. Durham, NC. 2025; 850.
  • Published on 3/11/2025

    Huberfeld N, Ulrich MR. United States v Skrmetti-Testing the Transition to Politicized Regulation of Medicine. JAMA. 2025 Mar 11; 333(10):839-840. PMID: 39804743.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 11/12/2024

    Ulrich MR. The Second Amendment's Second Sex. Yale Law Journal Forum. 2024; 134:125-57.

     Read At: Custom
  • Published on 11/5/2024

    Huberfeld N, McCuskey E, Ulrich MR. The US Presidential Election's High Stakes for the Future of Medicine. JAMA. 2024 Nov 05; 332(17):1421-1422. PMID: 39302830.

     Read At: PubMed

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