In 1993, Wardlaw served on the Executive Committee on Debate Preparation for Richard Riordan's campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles.

[8] On July 11, 2008, Wardlaw ruled in favor of Savannah Redding, a 13-year-old girl who was strip searched because she was wrongly suspected of having drugs on her.

Wardlaw wrote the majority opinion in Bryan v. MacPherson, a case where police officers tasered a man at a traffic spot because he was not wearing a seatbelt.

Wardlaw also wrote a concurrence in denying en banc, joined by judges Pregerson, Reinhardt, and W. Fletcher, defending her initial decision to rule against the officers.

[10][11] On March 8, 2017, Wardlaw ruled that Carlos Bringas-Rodriguez, a gay Mexican, must be given protection from persecution, overruling Castro-Martinez v. Holder.

In the opinion, Judge Sandra Ikuta wrote, "Cooperation relating to enforcement of federal immigration law is in pursuit of the general welfare, and meets the low bar of being germane to the federal interest in providing the funding to "address crime and disorder problems, and otherwise... enhance public safety... one of the main purposes for which” the grant is intended.

In her dissent, Judge Wardlaw wrote, "[The Department of Justice's] decision to implement both the illegal immigration focus area and the Cooperation Certification is foreclosed by the text, structure, and purpose of the Community Policing Act.

"[12] In July 2019, Wardlaw dissented when the 9th circuit en banc upheld Trump's gag rule which defunded abortion providers from Title X funds.

An award of attorneys' fees here assures that "an overzealous monopolist [cannot] use his copyright to stamp out the very creativity that the [Copyright] Act seeks to ignite," allowing for greater breathing room for classroom educators and those involved in similar educational extracurricular activities.On September 23, 2021, Wardlaw, joined by Milan Smith, ordered the DOJ to publicize records regarding the number of weapons that were formerly owned by law enforcement.

The lawsuit had been filed by a staff psychologist working for a federal prison who discovered that a corrections lieutenant was sexually harassing her via social media.

[19][20] Wardlaw established the Soledad Jiménez McLane Scholarship Fund, in honor of her mother, for disadvantaged Latino children in the San Gabriel Valley at the Mayfield School, in Pasadena, California.