Justin Levitt is an American

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a State (polity), state, namely, the executive (government), executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as th ...

scholar and professor at

Loyola Law School Loyola Law School is the law school of Loyola Marymount University, a private Catholic university in Los Angeles, California. Loyola was established in 1920. Academics Degrees offered include the Juris Doctor (JD); Master of Science in Legal ...

. In September 2015, he left Loyola Law School to become the Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the

United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is the institution within the federal government responsible for enforcing federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion Religion is usually d ...

. He returned to the faculty of Loyola until early 2017.

Education

Levitt received his BA

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

and his MPA and JD from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Career

Levitt served as the National Voter Protection Counsel in 2008. He began teaching at Loyola Law School in 2010, where he originally focused on electoral

redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...

and administration. While there, he directed the school's Practitioner Moot Program, which allowed new attorneys to practice their arguments. He has also served as a law clerk to

Stephen Reinhardt Stephen Roy Reinhardt (born Stephen Roy Shapiro; March 27, 1931 – March 29, 2018) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, with chambers in Los Angeles, California. He was the last federal ...

, a judge from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, as well as on advisory committee for the voting system InkaVote. On September 10, 2015,

announced that Levitt would go on leave from their school to join the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division as their Deputy Assistant Attorney General. He is expected to return to Loyola in early 2017. After he had been appointed to this position, he said that the Department of Justice is hampered by the Supreme Court's 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision, and that this decision is unquestionably "the biggest change since the last presidential election."

Work on election law

Levitt is an academic researcher on

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

and constitutional law. In 2014, he reported on

Wonkblog Wonkblog was a blog, hosted by the ''Washington Post'', that was dedicated to domestic policy, economics and politics. It was started by Ezra Klein, originally as a solo venture, but, by February 2013, had grown to employ a staff of five people. T ...

that there had only been 31 credible cases of

voter impersonation Voter impersonation, also sometimes called in-person voter fraud, is a form of electoral fraud in which a person who is eligible to vote in an election votes more than once, or a person who is not eligible to vote does so by voting under the name ...

from 2000 to August 2014, out of more than 1 billion ballots cast during this period. He also runs a blog about redistricting. Levitt has also authored work in coordination with the

Brennan Center for Justice The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is a nonprofit law and public policy institute. The organization is named after Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Generally considered Modern liberalism in th ...

Honors and awards

Levitt received Loyola's Excellence in Teaching Award for 2013-14.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levitt, Justin Loyola Law School faculty United States Department of Justice officials Living people American scholars of constitutional law Harvard Kennedy School alumni Harvard Law School alumni Year of birth missing (living people)