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:
5/19- CBS News
LAPD OPENS INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGATIONS OF ABUSE AGAINST T.I. AND TINY
5/18- San Francisco Chronicle
AFTER FRENCH LAUNDRY DINNER, A LOBBYING BOOM FOR NEWSOM ADVISER'S FIRM
5/18- Sun Sentinel
Aaron H. Caplan, a First Amendment expert and professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, agreed, “All Judge Coates needed to do was take this letter and stick it in the file and not worry himself about it.”
Caplan said citizens can criticize a judge all they want, but not in a courtroom or in a court filing on a pending issue.
“As a general matter, anyone can criticize a judge, anyone can say a judge should not be re-elected, and if Mr. Jenkins had written that in a letter and published it in your newspaper, or put it up on the internet, it’s absolutely First Amendment protected,” Caplan said.
5/18- CALMatters
NEWSOM RELEASES TAX RETURN, BUT WILL RECALL CANDIDATES?
Her opinion was echoed by Jessica Levinson, a professor of political law at Loyola Law School.
“You could say the legislative history and purpose is all about disclosure and transparency and the need for voters to identify if their potential officials are corrupt and have potential conflicts of interest,” Levinson said. “But it’s going to be hard to overcome a plain language problem.”
5/17- KCRW
SUPREME COURT TAKES UP ABORTION CASE THAT COULD OVERTURN ROE V. WADE
With a new conservative majority on the Supreme Court, this means the landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade could be in trouble. The justices will likely hear arguments on this Mississippi case in the fall.
“This was clearly an attempt to overturn Roe vs. Wade,” says Jessica Levinson, law professor at Loyola Law School.
5/17- CBS News
SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR MISSISSIPPI ABORTION CASE
5/14- Bloomberg Law
LGBT HEALTH BIAS PROTECTIONS SET TO CLASH WITH RELIGION SHIELD
“I would go so far as to say, if you look at these cases there’s been an erasure of the interests at stake for the anti-discrimination law,” said Brietta Clark, a law professor at Loyola Law School at Loyola Marymount University, who specializes in health care and discrimination.
“There’s virtually no analysis” of what the discrimination is that’s happening and the harm its causing, she said.
5/13- Time
CAN ONE AGENCY KEEP THE U.S. SAFE AND STILL BE HUMANE? THE NEW DHS CHIEF THINKS SO
From Cuba, Mayorkas’ family eventually settled in Beverly Hills, Calif., where their lives were not particularly glamorous. Mayorkas’ father was a workaholic, says his sister Cathy, getting up at an “ungodly hour” to work at home before his job as a comptroller at a textile business, then staying up late to do the same. His mother, who spoke precise English in a lilting Romanian accent, became a teacher. Mayorkas graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1977 and UC Berkeley in 1981 before earning his degree at Loyola Law School in 1985. After law school, he was drawn to public service as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles. “It was an ethic instilled in me by my parents,” Mayorkas tells TIME during an interview at DHS headquarters across the Anacostia River from the Capitol. “And also, quite frankly, my family’s life history drove me to that.”
5/11- Business Insider
SILICON VALLEY VCS ARE AT WAR WITH THE 'FAR LEFT RADICALS' RUNNING CALIFORNIA
5/10- KCRW
WHAT HAPPENS IF ERIC GARCETTI LEAVES AS LA MAYOR TO BECOME AMBASSADOR TO INDIA?
Last week, Axios broke news that the White House might consider LA Mayor Eric Garcetti for a high-profile diplomatic post: ambassador to India. He was previously considered as a possible nominee for transportation secretary under Biden, but that appointment later went to Pete Buttigieg, Indiana’s former mayor. So what would happen if Garcetti were to leave his post in LA before the end of his term?
Guest: Jessica Levinson, Professor, LMU's Loyola Law School.
5/10- Los Angeles Times
ESSENTIAL CALIFORNIA: IS L.A. MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI ON THE WAY OUT?
Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson told The Times: “It’s going to have a ripple effect, not just in terms of who Garcetti’s successor would be but how that would affect the race for mayor, who on Garcetti’s staff stays and goes and, perhaps most importantly, what happens to the mayor’s initiatives and goals.”
5/10- Vox
THE SUPREME COURT MADE THE GOP’S NEW VOTING RESTRICTIONS POSSIBLE
A study by Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt, who led much of the Justice Department’s voting rights work in the Obama administration, uncovered only 35 credible allegations of in-person voter fraud among the 834 million ballots cast in the 2000-2014 elections. A Wisconsin study found seven cases of any kind of fraud among the 3 million votes cast in the 2004 election — and none were the kind that could be prevented by voter ID. In 2014, Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, a Republican, announced the results of a two-year investigation into election misconduct within his state. He found zero cases of voter impersonation at the polls.
5/10- Associated Press
CAPITOL RIOTERS MAKE QUESTIONABLE CLAIMS ABOUT POLICE
“The context will be very important in claiming officers welcomed in a crowd,” said Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson. “They were trying to control a fast-developing, difficult, potentially explosive situation. So I don’t think it’s enough to say, ‘The officer didn’t tackle me.’”
5/8- Reuters
FOUR EX-COPS INDICTED ON U.S. CIVIL RIGHTS CHARGES IN GEORGE FLOYD KILLING
"The indictments, while certainly not convictions, send an important message to the public that the legal system does provide avenues of recourse for the actions the former officers took that led to the death of Floyd," said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
5/7- Los Angeles Times
IS GARCETTI GOING? LOS ANGELES WAITS WITH UNCERTAINTY AS CITY FACES MAJOR CROSSROADS
“It’s going to have a ripple effect,” said Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson, “not just in terms of who Garcetti’s successor would be but how that would affect the race for mayor, who on Garcetti’s staff stays and goes and, perhaps most importantly, what happens to the mayor’s initiatives and goals.”
5/6- USA Today
BIDEN DECISION ON COVID VACCINE PATENT WAIVERS IS MORE ABOUT GLOBAL LEADERSHIP THAN IP
Back in October 2020 – as the world recorded its first million COVID-19 deaths – South Africa and India presented a proposal at the World Trade Organization for “a waiver from the implementation, application and enforcement” of global intellectual property rights “in relation to prevention, containment or treatment of COVID-19.” Along with other western countries, the Trump administration strenuously opposed the idea. But on Wednesday the Biden administration said it is prepared to go along with such a waiver, at least for coronavirus vaccines.
Article by LMU Loyola Law School professor Justin Hughes.
5/6- Fast Company
CAN THE FTC STOP THE TECH INDUSTRY’S USE OF ‘DARK PATTERNS’?
“I think there’s a lot the FTC can do with current authority,” says Lauren Willis, an associate dean and law professor at LMU Loyola Law School. Her suggestion: Have the FTC make more of an example of high-profile offenders.
5/5- ABC 7
"I think people place bets on whether he's going to serve out this term," " said Jessica Levinson, a Loyola Law School professor. "My guess is that the answer at this point is probably not. We've had a couple of these false starts. Will he run for president? No. Then he serves as a major part of the Biden campaign. Will he be a cabinet member? No."
5/5- CBS Los Angeles
“I think Caitlyn Jenner did not make the case for why she, as a Republican, should be elected in California,” Loyola Law School Professor and political analyst, Jessica Levison, told CBSLA’s Tom Wait. “I say as a Republican because California is a blue state and any Republican is going to face an uphill battle.”
5/3- Los Angeles Times
FOR USC WOMEN, LARGEST-EVER SEX ABUSE PAYOUT LEAVES BITTERNESS, VAST DISPARITIES
“I’m really struggling to think of a situation where the highest paid members ... were 10 times higher than a very similar settlement that was reached in the same 12- to 24-month period,” said Loyola Law School professor Adam Zimmerman, who teaches complex litigation and served as counsel to the special master for the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund.
5/2- NBC News
NEWSCONFERENCE: JENNER, A SERIOUS CANDIDATE FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR?
NBC4’s Conan Nolan talks Jessica Levinson of Loyola Law School and Dan Schnur of USC and Berkeley on Caitlyn Jenner running for California Governor and the recall election. What are the odds of the electorate being upset with Governor Gavin Newsom if the recall election itself is six months from now?
5/2- Los Angeles Times
CALIFORNIA REPUBLICANS TAKE DONATIONS FROM MOGUL AFTER SEX SCANDAL
“In politics in general, I think the hope of people who have been accused of wrongdoing is that we’re all amnesiacs. And eight times out of 10 we are,” said Jessica Levinson, an election law professor at Loyola Law School. “Republicans in tight races — very few people are going to vote against them because they got money from a PAC that got money from Steve Wynn.