About Ryan

Ryan M. Kendall is a civil rights litigator at Community Legal Aid SoCal whose practice spans housing access, free speech, prisoners' rights, and LGBTQ+ civil liberties. He handles cases from selection through appellate argument, combining impact litigation with coalition strategy to secure systemic change for low-income and marginalized communities.

Representative Matters

Huntington Beach Public Library Censorship Challenge
Successfully challenged Huntington Beach's public-library censorship regime under California's Freedom to Read Act. Served as lead organizational counsel: helped assemble a coalition with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, the First Amendment Coalition, and Jenner & Block; recruited the lead plaintiff; co-authored the writ petition, complaint, and merits briefing; and argued the merits hearing on behalf of petitioners.

Press: Huntington Beach must follow state's Freedom to Read Act, O.C. judge rules

California Housing Element Enforcement Litigation
Secured published precedent enforcing California housing law against charter-city noncompliance. Obtained mandatory intervention for affordable-housing advocates in the California Attorney General's enforcement action against Huntington Beach, ensuring that low-income residents had a formal voice in the litigation.

Press: Appeals Court Orders Huntington Beach To Comply With State Housing Law

Los Angeles COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium Defense
Successfully defended Los Angeles's pandemic eviction protections against a federal constitutional challenge brought by property-owner groups. Obtained dismissal of the claims, preserving emergency housing protections for thousands of Los Angeles tenants.

Press: Supreme Court Turns Down Claim From L.A. Landlords Over Covid Evictions Ban

Tenant Harassment Litigation
Secured multiple six-figure damages and attorney-fee recoveries on behalf of tenants targeted by serial eviction and intimidation campaigns. Developed and led trial and appellate litigation strategies across several complex landlord-tenant matters.

Arizona Prison-Conditions Litigation
Contributed to litigation maintaining federal court oversight of conditions of confinement for more than 30,000 people incarcerated in Arizona state prisons. This work included briefing that identified methodological flaws in the state's prison-oversight compliance reporting data.

Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse: Jensen v. Thornell, 2:12-cv-00601 (D. Ariz.)

Landmark LGBTQ+ Leadership and Advocacy

  • Served as a key fact witness in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (the Proposition 8 federal trial), testifying about the harms of conversion therapy and the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ youth. The district court cited my testimony in its findings of fact striking down California's same-sex-marriage ban. Judge Vaughn Walker, who presided over the trial, later described my testimony as the "most touching testimony at trial" and "one of the defining moments in the trial." The case later reached the Supreme Court as Hollingsworth v. Perry on a procedural question. My testimony was later dramatized in Dustin Lance Black's play "8."

  • My advocacy informed early legislative efforts to prohibit conversion therapy for minors in the United States. I testified before state legislatures in California, New York, and New Jersey in support of conversion-therapy bans, helping to pass the nation's first such laws — a legislative model now adopted by dozens of jurisdictions.

  • Received the Courage Award from the National Center for Lesbian Rights (2014) and served on NCLR's #BornPerfect Advisory Committee, a national campaign to end conversion therapy in the United States.

  • Amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs:

        — Joined an amicus curiae brief on behalf of conversion therapy survivors in Pickup v. Brown / Welch v. Brown before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, defending California's SB 1172, the nation's first law banning conversion therapy for minors. The Ninth Circuit upheld the law. (See Brief amicus curiae of Survivors of Sexual Orientation Change Therapies)

        — Joined an amicus curiae brief on behalf of conversion therapy survivors in United States v. Windsor before the United States Supreme Court, urging the Court to recognize sexual orientation as a suspect classification and strike down the Defense of Marriage Act. (See Brief amicus curiae of Survivors of Sexual Orientation Change Therapies)

        — Lead named amicus in GLAD Law brief defending conversion-therapy bans in Chiles v. Salazar before the United States Supreme Court. (See Brief amici curiae of Ryan M. Kendall, et al.)

Training, Strategy, and Public Engagement

  • Provides strategic training and technical assistance to community organizations, legal-aid advocates, and movement partners on complex litigation strategy, coalition building, appellate practice, and impact-case development.

  • Coauthored California's Twin Crises: Housing and Homelessness, the May 2023 cover story in Orange County Lawyer magazine, reframing the regional housing element policy debate around the perspectives of low-income tenants, unhoused persons, and the advocates and service providers who work with them.

Education and Admissions

  • UCLA School of Law, J.D. — Specialization in Public Interest Law and Policy

  • Columbia University, B.A., summa cum laude with Departmental Honors in Political Science

  • State Bar of California; United States District Court for the Central District of California