On a chilly Friday morning in late February, the Loyola community gathered for Mass followed by a breakfast conversation about the power of voting and finding hope in today’s fragmented world featuring Professor and Gerald T. McLaughlin Fellow Justin Levitt.
Mass & Breakfast Conversation is a campus series that pairs Mass with a breakfast discussion on topics related to life and the law.
Moderated by Luke P. Wardour ’27, the conversation opened with recognition of Levitt’s national profile as a widely cited scholar and expert voice on democracy and voting rights. Yet in the intimate setting of the morning gathering, Levitt spoke not as a commentator, but as a professor among community: measured, thoughtful, and with warmth.
Reflecting on his journey into public service, Levitt doesn’t recall any singular “Spider-Man moment” that defined his calling.
Instead, his work in election law and voting rights was borne from an emergent realization that legal systems can help people feel that they belong. The act of voting, he said, is not the only way to signal that someone matters — but it is a powerful one. Having witnessed both the frustration of disenfranchisement and the joy of first-time voters and newly naturalized citizens, Levitt described democracy not only as structure, but as affirmation.
In a national moment when democracy can feel abstract, Levitt brought it back to something intimate: belonging.
That commitment to belonging extended well beyond the classroom. Before joining Loyola, Levitt worked on presidential campaigns and later in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)’s Civil Rights Division, focusing on voting rights and civil rights enforcement. On campaigns, he explained, his primary role was protecting the voting process and ensuring that those who wished to vote had a clear path to do so.
At the DOJ, he supervised career attorneys and helped advance what he described as truly innovative work. Even as he spoke with great pride about those efforts, he lingered on what remained undone, recalling how he “felt every inch” of the distance between what was achieved and what might yet be realized.
The conversation later turned to political polarization, a topic top of mind for many Americans. For much of the nation’s history, Levitt noted, fierce disagreement has been the norm — “scary, but also heartening.” What feels different today, he suggested, is not disagreement itself, but fragmentation: a loss of connection that once allowed people to debate while remaining in relationship with each other.
If polarization is the headline, Levitt suggested, disconnection is the story underneath it.
Referencing the U.S. Surgeon General’s warning about a “loneliness epidemic,” he framed the challenge as social as much as legal. When Wardour asked what rebuilding a fragmented social order might require, Levitt offered a surprising answer: “Dog parks,” he said with a smile, drawing laughter from the audience.
He quickly clarified the point. Dog parks, he explained, are one salient example of spaces where people come to know one another first as people — before politics, economics, or ideology enter the frame. Schools, churches, and connected neighborhoods serve the same role, fostering the kinds of relationships that sustain civic life.
The event closed with audience questions, including one attendee who raised concerns about the role of the Supreme Court in an increasingly polarized era. Levitt acknowledged the weight of the concern and returned to a principle he believes is foundational to democratic institutions.
“We don’t pay the Court to decide; we pay the Court to explain,” he said.
In a morning that moved from conversations on polarization to reflections on belonging, a clear throughline emerged: democracy depends not only on outcomes, but on transparency, trust and connection — the very qualities on display in the room that day.