Being Responsible Gatekeepers

By Professor Michael Waterstone

This post originally appeared on Law.com.

Who we allow, and even encourage, to join our ranks says a lot about our profession.  For too long, lawyers were almost entirely white males.  There is still a lot of work to do to make the legal profession more accurately reflect the society it serves.  But we have made progress.  Organizations like the California Bar’s Council on Access and Fairness have been looking examining and gathering evidence about how to increase the pipeline for underrepresented groups to become lawyers, in some cases with measurable successes.

Unfortunately, people with disabilities are still incredibly underrepresented.  The few studies to examine the issue have found that there are few, and in some states miniscule, attorneys with disabilities (for example, in 2009, Colorado estimated .15% of its lawyers had a disability).  Although in some cases these numbers may be an example of underreporting, by any measure they are too low.  This is in part based on a pipeline problem.  According to an American Bar Association study, individuals with disabilities are less likely to apply and be admitted to law school.  This means that the few students with disabilities can experience isolation when in law school.  And when they enter the profession, new lawyer with disabilities have fewer role models who can identify with their experiences.  Our profession reflects a lack of lawyers with disabilities in leadership positions in private practice or in bar associations. Unsurprisingly, lawyers with disabilities report problems with courthouse accessibility, accommodations, and in some cases outright discrimination.

Campus in the Spring

By Associate Professor Elizabeth Pollman

This year we are celebrating the 50^th anniversary of our law school campus.  I love what an interesting space we inhabit in downtown Los Angeles, and I consider myself lucky to get to teach on such a unique and functional campus that has been designed with an artistic vision.  

But the campus, of course, really comes alive with all of us who spend our time here, and I wanted to share how I’m reminded of that on an almost daily basis. It is the time of the spring semester when law review boards change over and the faculty receives emails with the lists of students who will be taking the helms of the various journals at Loyola.  I’m delighted to see current and former students on the lists, and I remember how busy my students are outside of the classroom.  It is also the season for receiving emails from students, diligently letting me know that they have to miss a class because they are attending (and winning!) a trial competition.  Sometimes I come across other interesting and important activities that Loyola students are up to and here’s a new one: – the dlreporter.com.

The Dotted Line Reporter is a Loyola law student-produced blog that has excellent, timely content focused on business and legal developments in the entertainment industry.  The blog provides lots of interesting info and analysis on a wide range of topics in film, television, music, sports, the arts, and more.   The site is packed with content on trending topics I want to read – everything from the recent “Dumb Starbucks” parody to the Time Warner-Comcast merger.  What is truly impressive is how many of the stories are not just the same sound bites you’d find on bigger, well-known blogs and websites but are rather original commentary and reflect thoughtful research.  The “Dumb Starbucks” piece, for example, was the result of one of the student contributors actually going over to the faux coffee storefront and interviewing folks and sleuthing the story. 

What I also love about this new blog is how it reflects the entrepreneurial spirit of the students who have started it.  I teach business law courses here at Loyola, and I try to bring to life the law we study – how the cases we read, for example in Business Associations, reflect scenarios where real people were pursuing innovative ideas, career or investment goals.  The students creating the dlreporter.com have that entrepreneurial, industrious spark to use their interests to pave their own paths to success.

At Home Base Immigration Clinic, Smiles About as Clients Become Citizens

Clinical attorneys Marissa Montes ’12 (pictured, left) and Emily Robinson (second from right) ’12 recently joined their Home Base Immigration Clinic clients, Francisco and Sonia, in Los Angeles as they took their oaths to become new U.S. citizens. The clinic focuses on providing representation to individuals who are unable to obtain immigration legal services elsewhere, focusing on the community of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles area, specifically the constituents of Dolores Mission and Homeboy Industries. The clinic is accepting students for the 2014-2015 academic year. Interested students must have taken or be concurrently enrolled in Immigration Law during the 2014 fall semester. They may apply by sending a resume, a current transcript and a one-page personal statement to hbic@lls.edu by March 14, 2014.

Whose Version of 'Diversity' Did the Oscars Celebrate?

By Associate Professor Priscilla A. Ocen and Khaled A. Beydoun

This op-ed originally appeared on AlJazeera.com.

In many ways, Hollywood is a fenced-off community. It serves as the guardian of public accolades for excellence in film and representation. Yet, its gatekeepers are still overwhelmingly white, male and old, while the world it seeks to depict is the opposite. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is no different from broader trends in Hollywood itself. The voters who determined the winners of the 86th-annual Academy Awards on Sunday, March 2 are a testament to the white homogeneity and hegemony in Hollywood.

People of color have always been on the margins of Hollywood. Oscar nods to Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry and Jamie Foxx were generally lauded as moments of racial progress, allegedly highlighting an industry moving away from racial exclusion and toward diversity.

Unmasking the meaning and motivations behind Hollywood “diversity” reveals that gatekeeper politics – not racial progress – dictates which people of color are let inside, and the shape, complexion and color of the faces that remain fenced outsides Hollywood’s gates.

Inside the Gates: Oscar Voters are White and Male

One can drive from Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, the site for the Oscars, and easily take a route through a tapestry of Asian, Black and Latino neighborhoods. Yet, the images that are often celebrated within spaces like the Dolby Theater obscure or outright misrepresent the lives of people who live in communities of color, often relying on tired and outdated stereotypes.

Loyola Professors File Amicus Brief in Supreme Court Case on Pleading Standards

By Professors Simona Grossi and Allan Ides

In October 2004, two groups of demonstrators assembled near the Jacksonville Inn in Jacksonville, Oregon, where President George W. Bush was scheduled to dine. One group was pro-Bush and the other was anti-Bush. When President Bush arrived at the Inn, both groups were in identical proximity to the president, each on a sidewalk near or adjacent to the Inn. Shortly after the president’s arrival, Secret Service agents ordered the anti-Bush group to move to a place where they were less visible and less audible to the president. The pro-Bush group was not required to move. Members of the anti-Bush group sued the Secret Service agents claiming a violation of their First Amendment rights. The case is now pending in the Supreme Court, where one of the issues presented is whether the plaintiffs’ Second Amendment complaint satisfies the pleading standards established in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007), and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009). Those standards focus on the elements of the claim and on the non-conclusory, factual matter alleged in the complaint. Under Twombly and Iqbal, the sufficiency of a complaint must be established by reference to the alleged facts and the reasonable inferences that may be drawn therefrom. The question is whether those allegations and inferences plausibly suggest a claim upon which relief can be granted.

The critical question presented in Wood v. Moss pertains to how a court must assess inferences drawn from the non-conclusory factual allegations. The government argues that the SAC is deficient because any “conceivable” inferences of unlawful intent that may be drawn from the factual allegations cannot withstand a “more likely” neutral explanation for the agents’ behavior, specifically a lawful motivation to protect the president from harm. The respondents assert, on the other hand, that the specific allegations of differential treatment between the similarly situated pro-Bush and anti-Bush demonstrators, coupled with specific allegations of a pattern of similar acts of viewpoint discrimination by the Secret Service, provide ample support for an inference of discriminatory purpose. 

We co-authored an amicus on behalf of professors of Civil Procedure in which we argue that the Court should adopt an approach to inferences that recognizes the primary role of district courts in making what is essentially a practical and commonsense judgment as to which inferences may be sufficient to support a claim. Certainly, a mechanical formula intended to instruct courts on how to identify a reasonable inference would serve neither the ends of justice nor principles of sound case-management. We further argue that conflicting reasonable inferences should not be resolved in a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, where the plaintiffs’ factual allegations, and all reasonable inferences taken therefrom, are presumed to be true. Such conflicting interpretations of the facts should await discovery, summary judgment and, if necessary, trial. A copy of our amicus brief can be found here.

What Obama Left Unsaid on Helping the Long-Term Unemployed

Associate Dean Michael Waterstone

This op-ed originally appeared in Roll Call.

People who have been without work for a long period of time are hurting. Even the most tenacious job seeker becomes discouraged over time, and their skills inevitably erode. The longer you are out of a job, the less attractive you become to employers, who wonder why you cannot find work. It is a vicious cycle, and your ability to support yourself and your family deteriorates.

Although some things have improved since the Great Recession, the job prospects for the long-term unemployed have not. Many companies now explicitly advertise that they will not accept job applications from people who are not currently working elsewhere. That is why it is a good thing that President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to address the issue. The president's call to help the long-term unemployed is right in line with his larger theme of creating good jobs to help bolster the middle class as part of an "opportunity agenda."

Read the complete op-ed.

Prof. Levenson publishes review of American Founding Son: John Bingham and the Invention of the 14th Amendment

By Professor Laurie Levenson

Professor Levenson's review, "When Legislators Actually Mattered," appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Excerpt:

PROFESSOR GERARD MAGLIOCCA spares no detail in his comprehensive review of John Bingham's life and his drafting of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. For history buffs, constitutional scholars, and civil war experts, the book is a smorgasbord of facts about a critical period in America's history. The reader is taken step by step through the political and legal hurdles required to enact one of the most significant post-Bill of Rights provisions of our Constitution.
The 14th Amendment makes America the country it is today. Without it, Reconstruction following the Civil War was unlikely to have succeeded. Without it, there would be no limits on the states' ability to restrict freedoms of speech and religion, nor any guarantee that local law enforcement would honor citizens' rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

Read the complete review.