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:
1/25- NBC News
PRO-TRUMP REPUBLICANS CLAIM SENATE'S IMPEACHMENT TRIAL IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL. NICE TRY
Article by LMU Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson.
1/25- KCRW
HOW LIKELY WILL SENATE CONVICT TRUMP WHEN HIS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL STARTS NEXT MONTH?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will deliver the article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump to the Senate today. He’s charged with one crime: inciting an insurrection. He encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol building earlier this month.
The trial won’t start for another two weeks — under a deal struck between Senate Democrats and Republicans. A South Carolina elections and ethics attorney named Butch Bowers will represent Trump.
Guest: Jessica Levinson, Professor, LMU's Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
1/23- NBC News
CALIFORNIA LAUNCHES CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATION OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT
The department has also been criticized for its longstanding "deputy gangs," which a report last week by Loyola Law School numbered at 18.
"These deputy gangs foster a culture of violence and escalate uses of force against community members, including fatal shootings," said author Sean Kennedy, executive director of the school's Center for Juvenile Law & Policy, in a statement. "The institutional failure to address these deputy gangs in any meaningful way has deprived the community of equal justice under the law."
1/22- KQED
AS CALIFORNIA'S ATTORNEY GENERAL PREPARES TO MOVE UP, DEMOCRATS VIE FOR COVETED JOB
Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson said Newsom will likely want someone he feels comfortable with. He may take gender or racial diversity into consideration, and, Levinson said, Newsom has shown he likes to break barriers with his appointments.
1/22- KTLA
LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL LASD DEPUTY GANG REPORT
1/22- Talking Points Memo
“I don’t buy that argument as anything other than an argument of convenience (e.g., looking for an excuse to avoid what should be easy and seemed politically hard),” Justin Levitt, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Law School, told TPM in an email.
1/21- Los Angeles Loyolan
LMU AND LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL PROFESSORS SHARE THOUGHTS ON PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION
LMU political science professors Michael Genovese and Chaya Crowder and Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson participated in a panel discussion following the inauguration about their thoughts on the presidential transition and their expectations for the next four years under the new administration. The three professors began by sharing their initial thoughts on the inauguration.
1/21- Reuters
WITH NO SELF-PARDON IN HAND, PRIVATE CITIZEN TRUMP FACES UNCERTAIN LEGAL FUTURE
It could also have fueled efforts to hold Trump accountable through civil lawsuits brought by private litigants, such as family members of people who died during the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump followers, said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
1/20- CBS Los Angeles
HISTORIC PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION WITH JESSICA LEVINSON
1/19- San Francisco Chronicle
SENATE TRIAL OF FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP DEPENDS LARGELY ON 145-YEAR-OLD CASE
1/19- KPCC
A new report from Loyola Law School details the last 50 years of deputy policing in Los Angeles and calls for more community collaboration and increased transparency from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The report lists 18 past and present "deputy gangs" within the Sheriff’s Department, whose jurisdiction extends to 141 unincorporated communities throughout the county.
1/19- Voice of San Diego
HOW CARLSBAD RESTAURANTS BECAME GROUND ZERO FOR CORONAVIRUS DEFIANCE
“The mere fact that you are violating the law does not automatically mean that you are expressing opposition to the law,” said Aaron Caplan, a professor at LMU Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who teaches First Amendment law. “I can go rob a bank. And I suppose that expresses my disagreement with the laws against bank robbery, but nobody’s going to say that robbing a bank is expressive conduct.”
1/18- CBS Los Angeles
BEVERLY HILLS SALON OWNER GINA BISIGNANO, 2 OTHERS ARRESTED FOR CAPITOL RIOTS
“These are serious charges, and they could absolutely rack up in terms of seeing federal prison time,” Jessica Levinson, a Loyola Law School professor, told CBSLA.
1/18-KCRW
The Senate heads back to Washington on Tuesday, a day before Joe Biden is inaugurated. One of its primary responsibilities will be to again hold an impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, this time on the charge of inciting an insurrection. The trial is not likely to start immediately. The Senate can’t begin until House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally sends over the new article of impeachment.
Guest: Jessica Levinson, Professor, LMU's Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
1/14- Associated Press
FBI DID NOT ISSUE STATEMENT CLEARING TRUMP FOR CAPITOL INSURRECTION
“It is not how the FBI works, it is not plausible that they completed their investigation,” said Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School and a former federal prosecutor.
Within six days of the Capitol breach, the FBI announced it had opened 170 criminal cases.
“Every time they arrest one of these people, they are interviewing them, they are finding out how they were influenced,” Levenson said. “They are in the midst of a huge investigation.”
1/13- Los Angeles Daily News
For the past several years, Sean Kennedy, a Loyola law professor and his students noticed a troubling pattern forming within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and its well-documented deputy gang problem.
1/13- Orange County Register
WHY ATTORNEYS FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS BLAME VICTIMS FOR THEIR OWN SEXUAL ABUSE, BULLYING
1/13- KTLA
LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL PROFESSOR JESSICA LEVINSON ON THE SECOND IMPEACHMENT VOTE FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP
Loyola Law School Professor Jessica Levinson joined us live to talk about the impeachment of President Donald Trump. For more information on Professor Jessica Levinson and her podcast Passing Judgement, you can follow her on Twitter @LevinsonJessica
1/13- KFI 640 AM
REPORT URGES REFORM FOR LASD, WHERE ‘DEPUTY GANGS' 'ESCALATE USES OF FORCE' (Also appeared in ABC 7, Mynewsla.com, CBS Los Angeles, Los Angeles Daily News
In an extensive report released today analyzing more than a dozen secret subgroups at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, researchers at LMU Loyola Law School laid out claims of “violent'' gangs of deputies, where members encouraged an aggressive style of policing, engaged in misconduct and were sometimes marked by common tattoos.
In the report, published Tuesday by the school's Center For Juvenile Law & Policy, chief author Sean Kennedy claimed the groups, “foster a culture of violence and escalate uses of force against community members.''
1/12- CBS News
LAW PROFESSOR BREAKS DOWN OPTIONS FOR HOLDING TRUMP ACCOUNTABLE
1/11- KCBS
‘FREE SPEECH VERSUS FREE ENTERPRISE’: DEBATE CONTINUES AFTER SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES BAN TRUMP
“This is something of a debate about free speech versus free enterprise,” Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School who once served at U.S. Department of Justice, said. “But the speech we get from the big social media companies is privately facilitated. It’s a company deciding what it wants you to do.”
1/11- KCRW
WILL TRUMP BE IMPEACHED FOR INCITING INSURRECTION?
The Constitution would allow an impeachment trial to happen after a president’s term ends, says Jessica Levinson, law professor at Loyola Law School.
“Impeachment is not just about removal. Because obviously once a president’s term is over, people could say, ‘What’s the point?’ The point would be to say, ‘You can't run in 2024. And you can't raise money. You can't use the benefit of the campaign finance rubric to try and run again in 2024,’” Levinson explains
1/11- Do LA
INSURRECTION AT THE CAPITOL: WHAT’S NEXT?
Last week rioters breached the Capitol building. Members of Congress barricaded themselves inside the House chamber and in offices for safety. Those who broke into the capitol committed federal crimes and five people died, including a Capitol Police Officer. Some rioters have already been arrested. President Trump now faces possible removal from office by the invocation of the 25th Amendment or a historic second round of impeachment proceedings. GOP representatives who objected to the certification of the election may face legal repercussions. How can the nation move forward from this insurrection? And how should elected officials lead in the face of such divisiveness, including the possibility of further violence on inauguration day and beyond? Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson moderates a panel of experts, including California Congresswoman Nanette Diaz Barragán, who sheltered in place in her office last Wednesday.
1/11- NPR Illinois
PARSING LEGAL QUESTIONS AROUND INVOKING THE 25TH AMENDMENT, IMPEACHMENT
As Democrats and some Republicans try to hold President Trump accountable for last week’s insurrection at the Capitol, Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd looks at some of the legal questions with Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Law School.
1/8- San Francisco Chronicle
CONGRESS CAN MOVE FAST IF IT WANTS TO — AND IT’S MOVING FAST TOWARD IMPEACHING TRUMP
1/7- NBC News
CAN TRUMP PARDON HIMSELF? CAPITOL SPEECH SPARKS IMPEACHMENT CALLS — AND NEW QUESTIONS
Article by LMU Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson.
1/7- San Francisco Chronicle
PELOSI'S DEMOCRATS WANT TO REMOVE TRUMP, BUT IT'S EASIER SAID THAN DONE
1/7- KCBS Radio
PROSECUTOR: SEDITION CHARGE POSSIBLE FOR PRO-TRUMP RIOTERS
“You can literally throw the book at them and it would be a pretty heavy book,” said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and professor at Loyola Law School. Levenson said it’s important for prosecutors to send a message with their charges.
“This cannot happen again,” she said. “This was a very scary moment for America and it cannot set a precedent that the way you deal with political opposition is through violence and destruction.”
1/1- Los Angeles Times
THESE ‘ROGUE’ DEPUTIES WERE FIRED. SO HOW DID THE JUMP OUT BOYS WIN BACK THEIR BADGES?
“Every institution seems to close its eyes to the serious constitutional consequences of deputies participating in these secret societies,” Sean Kennedy, a Loyola Law School professor and member of the county’s Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission, said in reference to the county’s efforts to root out cliques. “They call into question decades of convictions.”
1/1- Politico
AFTER TRUMP’S DRUBBING IN THE COURTS, LIBERALS FEAR A LEGAL HANGOVER
“The Trump campaign and their allies weren’t working with the most skilled lawyers,” said Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt. “They weren’t paying close attention because, all of a sudden, they found out to their surprise that the courthouse doors are quite narrow. They’re only open a crack.”