Cooley, alongside the National Center for Youth Law, the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, and the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic, achieved a landmark ruling in which a federal judge held that unaccompanied children in federal immigration custody are entitled to greater constitutional protections than they are currently afforded when they are detained in restrictive placements or denied release to family members. Lawyers Summer Wynn, Michael McMahon, Alix Mayhugh and Jamie Robertson led the Cooley effort.