The First Amendment and the Late Night Fallout: Legal Limits on Government Actio

David Loy became the First Amendment Coalition’s legal director in 2022. David is an experienced free speech and open government litigator. He has defended the First Amendment rights of reporters, photographers, bloggers, students, teachers, activists, protesters, musicians, Marines, and motorcycle club members. He has fought for public disclosure and governmental transparency for over 20 years.

Before joining FAC, David served as legal director of the ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties for almost 16 years. He also worked as a staff attorney with the Office of the Appellate Defender in New York City, a public defender in Spokane, Washington, and a staff attorney with the Center for Justice in Spokane.

He received his A.B. in History and Chinese Language from Brown University, where he was photo editor of the Brown Daily Herald. After college, he worked for a law firm in San Francisco, taught English in China, and served as the legal assistant for a Chicago legal services office. He graduated from Northwestern University School of Law in 1994 and clerked for Judge Dolores K. Sloviter of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

David is an active member of the California and New York bars, with inactive status in Washington and Illinois. He has served on the Southern District of California lawyer representative committee and the boards of California Appellate Defense Counsel and American Constitution Society, San Diego Lawyer Chapter.

John R. Baldivia is a partner of Rossi, P.C., where he negotiates a wide variety of contracts for major label recording artists, songwriters, and prominent influencers. John joined Rossi, P.C. with a strong background in music transactions, as well as entertainment and intellectual property litigation.

Prior to joining Rossi, P.C., John was a partner at Pierce Law Group LLP, where he negotiated various music contracts, film contracts, and reviewed complicated copyright clearance matters. John also served as a lead plaintiff-side attorney on complex litigation issues against various film and television studios. He has litigated a variety of entertainment-related claims involving fraud, breach of contract, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, misappropriation of name and likeness, employment claims, and talent agency controversies. John has won large 6- and 7-figure judgments on behalf of his clients while working for Pierce Law Group, and in 2020 and 2021, John was named as a Super Lawyers Rising Star for Southern California.

Eugene Volokh taught First Amendment law, a First Amendment amicus brief clinic, copyright law, criminal law, tort law, and a seminar on firearms regulation policy.

Before coming to UCLA, he clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge Alex Kozinski on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (6th ed. 2016), and Academic Legal Writing (5th ed. 2013), as well as over 90 law review articles. He is a member of The American Law Institute, a member of the American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel, and the founder and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog. His law review articles have been cited by opinions in eight Supreme Court cases and several hundred court opinions in total, as well as several thousand scholarly articles.

Volokh worked for 12 years as a computer programmer. He graduated from UCLA with a B.S. in math-computer science at age 15, and has written many articles on computer software. Volokh was born in the USSR; his family emigrated to the U.S. when he was seven years old.