Description
In a sweeping and historic decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark piece of legislation that protected abortion as a fundamental right across the nation. Since the ruling, several states have criminalized or outlawed abortion, and dozens of abortion clinics and health care facilities have closed or been forced to relocate to nearby states.
Moderated by USC Center for the Political Future (CPF) Director Bob Shrum, USC experts and faculty discuss how the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision will affect the 2022 midterm elections. They also highlight other upcoming Supreme Court cases and debate whether Roe can be restored.
The panel features Lee Epstein, Hilliard Distinguished Professor of Law at USC Gould School of Law; Mark Schoofs, Pulitzer prize-winning professor of journalism at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism; and Jessica Lall, president and CEO of Central City Association of Los Angeles and fall 2022 CPF fellow.
Who Will Benefit
– Those hoping to understand how the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision impacts voters
– Law professionals seeking deeper insights into the possibility of Roe v. Wade being restored
– Those looking to hear more about upcoming influential Supreme Court cases
About Our Featured Faculty
Lee Epstein is this Hilliard Distinguished Professor of Law at USC Gould School of Law and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Political and Social Science. She also serves as co-director of the Center for Empirical Research in the Law and principal investigator of the U.S. Supreme Court Database. As a recipient of 12 grants from the National Science Foundation, Epstein has authored or co-authored more than 100 articles and essays and 18 books.
Jessica Lall serves as the president and CEO of Central City Association (CCA), a premier advocacy organization focused on enhancing the vibrancy of Downtown Los Angeles and increasing opportunity in the region. She also serves on the boards of the USC Board of Governors, Goodwill Southern California, Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board, and Coro Southern California. She co-chairs the Communications Committee for the USC Board of Governors. In 2021, she ran for mayor of Los Angeles, focusing her campaign on proactive solutions to homelessness.
Mark Schoofs is a Pulitzer Prize winner and leads investigative journalism programming at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. Over his 30-year career, Schoofs edited Chicago’s lesbian and gay newsweekly, The Windy City Times, as it successfully crusaded for gay rights; won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on AIDS in Africa at New York’s famed alternative newspaper The Village Voice; shared in another Pulitzer Prize at The Wall Street Journal for reporting from Ground Zero on the 9/11 terrorist attacks and so much more.
Robert “Bob” Shrum is the director of the USC Center for the Political Future and the Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. A legendary political strategist, he was described as “the most sought-after consultant in the Democratic Party,” by The Atlantic Monthly. He was the strategist in over 25 winning U.S. Senate campaigns, eight successful campaigns for governor, successful campaigns for mayors in major American cities, and numerous campaigns for Congress and other statewide offices. His numerous clients included Edward Kennedy, Joe Biden, John Glenn, and Barbara Mikulski, David Dinkins and Tom Bradley — and John Kerry and Al Gore in their presidential races. Overseas, his clients included Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the British Labour Party, the Prime Minister of Ireland, and the Presidents of Colombia and Bolivia.
