Bagenstos
clerked for Judge
Stephen Reinhardt on the
Ninth Circuit for one year, and then joined the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He served as law clerk to Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the
U.S. Supreme Court in the 1997–1998 Term. He has argued four
U.S. Supreme Court cases, representing the plaintiff. In
Fry v. Napoleon Community Schools, 580 U.S. 154 (2017), he won a victory for a girl with
cerebral palsy who sought to bring her service dog with her to school; the Court reversed a lower-court decision throwing the case out of court. In
Young v. United Parcel Service, 575 U.S. 206 (2015), the Court established new protections for pregnant workers. In
United States v. Georgia, 546 U.S. 151 (2006), the Court upheld the constitutionality of Title II of the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as applied in the case of a prisoner who used a wheelchair. And in
Chevron v. Echazabal, 536 U.S. 73 (2002), the Court rejected the plaintiff's argument that he should be the one to decide if chemicals in the workplace posed too much risk to his health, given that he had hepatitis. In
Mays v. Snyder, Bagenstos has been representing Flint residents seeking relief for injuries they received in the
Flint water crisis; he litigated an appeal in which the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals held that Flint residents must receive the chance to make their constitutional case in court. In
Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, Bagenstos filed a brief challenging Ohio's voter purge procedure, criticizing the Trump administration's reversal of longstanding U.S. Department of Justice policy on the
National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Bagenstos has signed briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the anti-discrimination case brought by transgender student
Gavin Grimm, and opposing a constitutional right to discriminate against same-sex couples by businesses. He testified before Congress in favor of the
Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would protect workers against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. As Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Bagenstos was second-in-charge of the Civil Rights Division, and supervised the Civil Rights Division's appellate work, disability rights enforcement, and other matters. In the disability rights area, he emphasized intensified enforcement of the Supreme Court's decision in
Olmstead v. L.C., which requires that states provide services to people with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate to their individual situation. He also focused on ensuring that emerging technologies are accessible to people with disabilities. He has been a member of the faculty of Harvard Law School, and a visiting professor at
UCLA School of Law and
University of Michigan Law School. He was a professor of law from 2004 to 2009 at
Washington University School of Law, and from 2007 to 2008. He is the author of
Law and the Contradictions of the Disability Rights Movement (
Yale University Press 2009), and a
Foundation Press casebook on disability law, along with numerous articles. In 2018, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the
Michigan Supreme Court. In January 2021, Bagenstos was appointed general counsel to the
Office of Management and Budget in the
Biden administration. He was nominated to serve as general counsel to the
United States Department of Health and Human Services on August 6, 2021. The
Senate's Health Committee held hearings on his nomination on October 26, 2021. On November 17, 2021, the committee deadlocked on Bagenstos' nomination in a party-line vote. On February 9, 2022, the entire Senate voted to discharge the nomination from the committee in a vote of 48–47, clearing the way for Bagenstos to be confirmed on June 9, 2022, by a 49–43 vote. == Personal life ==