Loyola Law School faculty members pride themselves on being accessible to the media and part of the public discourse on news of legal significance. Visit Loyola's Summary Judgments faculty blog to read faculty opinions on current legal issues. Highlights of recent media appearances and quotations include:
2/28- CNN
CONSERVATIVE SUPREME COURT MAJORITY GETS ANOTHER CRACK AT THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT
2/28- CBS News
TRACKING TRUMP'S LEGAL CASES AS NEW YORK PROSECUTORS EXAMINE TAX DOCUMENTS
2/27- The Hill
DOJ FACES SWIFT TURNAROUND TO MEET BIDEN VOTING RIGHTS PLEDGE
“They weren't doing much, and they were really depressed about not doing much, and it sucks to be a person that is hard charging and has given up lots of other opportunities to do civil rights work, and then essentially be told you’re not going to be doing anything for four years,” Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola University Law School who previously served as deputy assistant attorney general in DOJ’s civil rights division during the Obama administration, said of his conversations with those within the section.
2/25- Regulatory Transparency Project
The Biden administration faces a variety of issues when it comes to China, from trade policy to aggression in the South China Sea. Not to be overlooked, however, is how the new administration will handle China’s policies and practices regarding intellectual property.
In this live podcast, experts from across the political spectrum discuss the key considerations at play regarding China and intellectual property and debate the best path forward for the new administration.
Guest: Justin Hughes, Professor, LMU's Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
2/22- CBS News
JUDGE MERRICK GARLAND SAYS HE WILL NOT BE THE PRESIDENT'S ATTORNEY
2/22- WitnessLA
GASCON’S EVIDENCE-BASED POLICIES WILL HELP REDUCE WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS & MOVE LA FORWARD
The voters elected George Gascón as LA County’s District Attorney because they want evidence-based policies that promote justice for all members of the community, not just a continuation of past failed policies. Mr. Gascón has already taken some giant steps in the right direction.
Article by LMU Loyola Law School professor and Legal Director of the Project for the Innocent Paula Mitchell.
2/22- KCRW
SUPREME COURT REJECTS TRUMP’S FINAL ATTEMPT TO HIDE HIS TAX RETURNS
The Supreme Court today rejected former President Donald Trump’s final appeal to keep his tax returns out of the hands of prosecutors at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. The office began investigating him over payments he made just before the 2016 election to two women who claimed they had affairs with him. The investigation has expanded since then — and likely includes the Trump Organization’s broader business dealings.
Guest: Jessica Levinson, Professor, LMU's Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
2/20- NBC News
IT'S TIME TO REDRAW AMERICA'S VOTING MAPS. WHERE'S THE DATA?
But Justin Levitt, an election law expert and professor at Loyola Law School, argued that correct data is more important than timely data — and that the elimination of preclearance will ultimately have a much bigger impact.
“There’s no questions, it’s going to be disruptive," Levitt, who worked on voting rights cases at the Department of Justice during the Obama administration, said of the delay. “But I don’t actually think it’s a disaster."
2/18- Los Angeles Times
GLENDALE OFFICIAL RAISES A GLASS - AND SPARKS #WINEGATE
Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School whose expertise includes election law and governance issues, said the debate suggests a lack of consensus about community standards.
She is wary of penalizing people for behaviors that are not illegal and do not affect their job performance.
2/17- The Hill
HOW BIDEN'S 'BUY AMERICAN' PLAN IS DIFFERENT FROM TRUMP'S
Among the flurry of executive orders President Biden signed in his first few weeks in office, it is easy to overlook his Jan. 25 “Buy American” order, an executive action the president says will help “rebuild the backbone of America: manufacturing, unions, and the middle class.”
While most of Biden’s executive orders have sought to reverse policies of the past four years, this “Buy American” order sounds eerily Trumpian. Indeed, if you’ve followed this issue at all, you know that President Trump had his own Buy American Executive Order – in fact, Trump made at least three such orders in four years — with little or no effect.
Article by LMU Loyola Law School professor Justin Hughes.
2/16- KCRW
The NAACP is suing former President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. The civil rights group filed the suit today on behalf of Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi. It claims that when Trump and Giuliani tried to block the certification of the presidential election on January 6, they violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, a law passed after the Civil War to help enforce new constitutional protections for former slaves at the time. The suit comes after the Senate acquitted the former president this weekend on the charge of inciting an insurrection.
Guest: Jessica Levinson, Professor, LMU's Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
2/15- Associated Press
AS REDISTRICTING LOOMS, DEMOCRATS JOCKEY TO COUNTER GOP EDGE
“To the extent that maps look horrible and you’re a litigator and you want to challenge the maps before the election, you have less time,” said Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University.
2/14- KTLA
INSIDE THE BULLPEN: ANALYZING THE REPUBLICAN VOTE IN THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL
Jessica Levinson, a Loyola law school professor, and Natalie Jennings, editor of The Fix at Washington Post, discuss why Republicans voted how they did and what kind of impact it could have on their political future.
2/14- Associated Press
IMPEACHMENT ISN'T THE FINAL WORD ON CAPITOL RIOT FOR TRUMP
“They’re way too early in their investigation to know,” said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School and former federal prosecutor. “The have arrested 200 people, they’re pursuing hundreds more, all of those people could be potential witnesses because some have said ‘Trump made me do it’.”
What’s not known, she said, is what Trump was doing during the time of the riot, and that could be the key. Impeachment didn’t produce many answers. But federal investigators in a criminal inquiry have much more power to compel evidence through grand jury subpoenas.
2/12- The Hill
CENSUS TO DELAY DATA DELIVERY, JEOPARDIZING REDISTRICTING CRUNCH
“I think the courts will be quite receptive. Courts hate redistricting,” said Justin Leavitt, a constitutional law professor and redistricting expert at Loyola Law School. “They don’t mind adjudicating cases, but they really don’t want to do it themselves.”
2/11- KCRW
LA COURTS ARE IN SESSION DESPITE COVID OUTBREAKS
Despite massive restrictions on businesses and restaurants for fear of spreading COVID, Los Angeles Superior Court is still holding some in-person sessions for evictions and traffic trials.
Just last month, three LA County Superior Court staff members died of the virus. Hundreds of court employees and several judges have tested positive, putting scores of other court attendees at potential risk of infection.
Guest: Laurie Levenson, Professor, LMU's Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
2/11- Associated Press
TRUMP CAN’T HANG ON TO LAWYERS AFTER FALSE ELECTION CLAIMS
“You don’t want to have the last person in America standing who’s a member of the bar and willing to take your case as your representative,” said Jessica Levinson, director of Loyola Law School’s Public Service Institute.
2/11- The Atlantic
THE GOP CHEAT CODE TO WINNING BACK THE HOUSE
Even if the Justice Department did not reject a state’s map, the preclearance requirement at least somewhat constrained partisan excesses, “because everyone knew there was going to be a review,” says Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who specializes in redistricting. He worries that the lawmakers’ incentives have now flipped: Since legislatures no longer need prior approval to proceed, they will feel emboldened to pursue aggressive racial and partisan gerrymanders because even a successful legal challenge against those maps could take years.
2/11- Fox 11 Los Angeles
RECALL NEWSOM? CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON EXPECTS TO MEET MINIMUM SIGNATURE TO MAKE BALLOT ANY DAY NOW
"Gov. Newsom was riding very high about 10 months ago," said Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson. "Now, the picture looks very different. He does look, in some ways, vulnerable."
Levinson says Gov. Newsom is facing a two-front battle against progressives who feel he hasn't gone enough in his COVID-19 response. Republicans and Independents, on the other hand, feel he's gone to far.
"I think that Gov. Newsom knows he’s going to face a recall election," Levinson said. "I think there are absolutely going to be enough ballot signatures and nobody wants to go through that. So yes, I think he has become in a lot of ways, more outward-facing, we see him traveling around the state. We see him having meetings that do look somewhat governmental, and somewhat political in the sense it’s campaign-style."
2/10- WitnessLA
WHAT DID MONDAY’S RULING ABOUT DA GASCÓN’S NEW JUSTICE REFORM POLICIES REALLY MEAN?
“George made a promise to be transparent,” said Loyola Law Professor Chris Hawthorne, who is the director of Loyola’s Juvenile Innocence and Fair Sentencing clinic, and one of the cluster of attorneys whom WitnessLA consulted about Judge Chalfant’s ruling, and the fate of the new reforms.
“Part of that transparency,” said Hawthorne, will be “keeping data on how the rollout of these policies work.”
2/10- CBS News
EVALUATING THE HOUSE IMPEACHMENT MANAGERS' LEGAL ARGUMENTS FOR TRUMP'S CONVICTION
2/10- NBC News
TRUMP LAWYER CASTOR'S IMPEACHMENT TRIAL DEFENSE WAS INEPT. BUT HE ALREADY TOLD US THAT
Former President Donald Trump's impeachment legal strategy defies the conventional wisdom that money can buy the best defense. From the pre- and post-election litigation to this week's Senate impeachment trial, Trump's legal team has employed strategies that fall somewhere between sanction-worthy and inept.
Article by LMU Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson.
2-9- PolitiFact
TRUMP DID NOT WIN TWO-THIRDS OF ELECTION LAWSUITS ‘WHERE MERITS CONSIDERED
Justin Levitt, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Marymount University, said, numbers aside, the focus on cases decided on their merits paints a misleading picture of the Trump campaign’s election litigation.
"The procedural dismissals aren’t all small things," Levitt said. "Some of them are bad lawyering. But some of them are dismissals, because Trump supporters tried to challenge laws well over a year after they were passed, well after ballots had gone out to eligible voters who had the right to rely on the fact that the ballots they were receiving were lawful, and well after the election was over."
2/9- Santa Monica Daily News
COURT BLOCKS SOME OF LOS ANGELES DA’S PROGRESSIVE POLICIES
Laurie Levenson, a criminal law professor at Loyola Law School, said the ruling is a setback for Gascon, but not the final word. In addition to appealing, he can further fine-tune the directives.
Levenson said it was unusual that the internal fight had spilled into the courts.
“Everything about this is unusual,” she said. “But it’s not a surprise that it’s happening, given that Gascon is coming in as a progressive or reformer among DAs, many of whom don’t want to reform.”
2/9- CBS News
TRUMP LAWYER SAYS PLANS CHANGED DUE TO "WELL DONE" PRESENTATION BY IMPEACHMENT MANAGERS
2/8- KCRW
TRUMP’S IMPEACHMENT TRIAL STARTS TUESDAY, AND SUPREME COURT LETS CHURCHES REOPEN IN CALIFORNIA
Former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial kicks off on Tuesday. In a brief filed this morning, his lawyers argued that Trump “did not direct anyone to commit unlawful actions” and that the case should be dismissed entirely because he can’t be held responsible for the actions of a “small group of criminals.”
The House impeachment managers rejected that request. But the brief gives more clues about the president’s planned defense.
Guest: Jessica Levinson, Professor, LMU's Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
2/5- Mercury News
SUPREME COURT RULES THAT CALIFORNIA MUST ALLOW INDOOR WORSHIP AT 25% CAPACITY
But even a blanket ban that treats religious services and secular gatherings the same could face renewed legal challenges in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, said Loyola Law School Professor Jessica Levinson.
2/5- USA Today
Mayorkas takes over the department as Biden, who nominated him, has signed a raft of immigration-related executive orders in his first two weeks in office, reversing many of President Donald Trump’s policies, including ending construction of Trump's signature wall on the border with Mexico and ordering a review of the Migrant Protection Protocols, or "Remain in Mexico" policy, that forced migrants seeking asylum to wait in Mexico while waiting to plead their case before a judge. On Tuesday, the White House announced the formation of a task force to reunite the hundreds of families separated at the border under a Trump-era policy.
2/4- Deadline
Aaron Caplan, professor at LMU Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said that while Smartmatic will have to prove there was a false statement of fact about them, one issue that may arise is whether Fox personalities were espousing their opinions or whether they were acting in a reporting capacity.
2/4- Talking Point Memo
AFTER IMPEACHMENT: WHAT CONSEQUENCES FOR TRUMP’S ELECTION CONSPIRACY COULD LOOK LIKE
Focusing just on Jan. 6 as a physical assault on the Capitol ignores “the exceedingly real, continuing danger” of the democratic assault that Trump waged, according to Justin Levitt, an election law professor at Loyola Marymount and former Justice Department official.
2/3-Los Angeles TImes
THE ANGELS ARE WITHIN THEIR RIGHTS TO FIRE MICKEY CALLAWAY, SO WHY HAVEN’T THEY?
2/2- Los Angeles Loyolan
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS CONFIRMED AS SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Loyola Law School (LLS) alumnus, Alejandro Mayorkas, was confirmed as Secretary of Homeland Security Tuesday afternoon in a 56-43 Senate vote. Mayorkas, LLS class of ‘85, is the first Latino and first immigrant to hold this position.
Mayorkas previously served as deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and as U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. As Secretary of DHS, he will now oversee the operations of Secret Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, TSA, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and more.
2/1- Los Angeles Times
L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF CLAIMED PROTESTERS TRIED TO DERAIL A TRAIN. FOOTAGE SUGGESTS OTHERWISE
2/1- Times of San Diego
CALIFORNIA’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS SUFFER RECORD ENROLLMENT DECLINE AMID THE PANDEMIC
A February 2020 study from the Public Policy Institute of California projected an enrollment decrease of 7% over the next 10 years for California public schools.
Megan Stanton-Trehan, director of the Youth Justice Clinic at Loyola Law School, said “what the data is showing is in line with our experiences.”
The students in the foster care and juvenile justice systems Stanton-Trehan works with have faced steep barriers in accessing remote learning, causing many of them to become disengaged. Student dropouts among her clients have gone up from previous years.
2/1- KCRW
TRUMP’S LAWYERS QUIT 1 WEEK BEFORE HIS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL, AND PROUD BOYS FACE CONSPIRACY CHARGES
Former President Trump’s second impeachment trial will start in about one week. All five of Trump’s defense lawyers quit over the weekend, apparently because Trump insisted that his defense center on the lie that he actually won the election, though his spokesperson denied that was the issue.
Guest: Jessica Levinson, Professor, LMU's Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.