Professor Justin Levitt Named to U.S. Department of Justice Post Overseeing Voting
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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 10, 2015 – Loyola Law School, Los Angeles today announced that prominent election law professor Justin Levitt, a national expert in constitutional law and the law of democracy, has been named Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Levitt will be on leave from Loyola, and available to serve in that position, through the close of the current presidential administration.
“Justin brings exceptional experience, insight and skill to his work, and we are delighted for his success. He is joining an extraordinary group of people at the U.S. Department of Justice who have served their country in making sure the laws are fairly administered, and I have every confidence he will serve with equal gravitas,” said Paul Hayden, Interim Dean, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.
Levitt began teaching at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles in 2010, focusing on election administration and redistricting. At Loyola in Los Angeles, Levitt directs the Practitioner Moot Program, a complimentary service to the community allowing attorneys with pending appellate matters to practice their arguments before faculty experts and experienced advocates. Under the program, Loyola has hosted recent moots for cases later argued in the Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the California Supreme Court, the California Court of Appeal, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
During his career, he has been invited to testify before committees of the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, several state legislative bodies, and both federal and state courts. His research has been cited extensively in the media and the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He also has maintained the website All About Redistricting, tracking the process of state and federal redistricting around the country, including litigation.
Levitt has served in various capacities for several presidential campaigns, including as the National Voter Protection Counsel in 2008, helping to ensure that tens of millions of citizens could vote and have those votes counted. Before joining the faculty of Loyola Law School, he was counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. He also has worked as in-house counsel to the country's largest independent voter registration and engagement operation, and at several nonprofit civil rights and civil liberties organizations.
Levitt served as a law clerk to the Hon. Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He holds a law degree and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University, and was an articles editor for the Harvard Law Review. He is admitted to the bar in California, New Jersey, New York, and the District of Columbia, and to the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit and Eleventh Circuit, and the U.S. District Courts in the Central District of California and Northern District of Florida.
Levitt has published in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law and Policy Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the William & Mary Law Review, and the peer-reviewed Election Law Journal, among others. Selected scholarship can be found at http://www.lls.edu/aboutus/facultyadministration/faculty/facultylistl-r/levittjustin/.
At the Department of Justice, Levitt succeeds Pamela S. Karlan, Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law at Stanford Law School.