LLS Impact

Welcome to the second issue of LLS Impact.  

Our inaugural issue explored artificial intelligence and the changing relationship between technology, power, and the law. In this issue, we turn to the promise of American democracy, the conditions and rights essential to full participation, and the ongoing pursuit of equality under the law. 

Throughout American history, the law has played a central role in defining and advancing equality. Landmark developments in civil rights and voting rights have expanded legal protections and opportunities for participation. Today, debates over citizenship, immigration, and political representation demonstrate how questions of equality continue to shape American law and public life.   

At LMU Loyola Law School, our faculty, students, and alumni are actively engaged in the legal issues shaping these debates. This issue features faculty scholarship on the limits of government power, the administration of elections, and constitutional protections against discrimination. It also includes a conversation between two professors about the effects of immigration and marriage laws on families, from World War II to the experiences of mixed-status families today.   

This issue also highlights the work of our students and alumni. Our students are serving as poll workers, registering peers to vote, and advocating for migrants on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Our alumni are contributing to this work in different ways, from litigating voting rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court to advocating for greater representation on the bench. One alumna is helping journalists develop a deeper understanding of the legal system so they can report accurately on the issues that affect the public.  

As lawyers and legal scholars, we have a particular responsibility to examine how the law operates in practice and consider how it can better serve the people whose lives it governs. I hope this issue offers a meaningful perspective on that responsibility and the work of our Loyola Law School community.  

Brietta Clark  
Fritz B. Burns Dean