Faculty in the News

Professor Alex Capron was quoted in an article about the 50th anniversary of The Asilomar conference, a discussion over the bioethics and law of genetics. "It was a meeting called because of concerns about the dangers, but the participants were mostly worked up about how exciting it will be to do the work." The legal experts warned the researchers that if they didn't take the lead in being careful about splicing together DNA from various sources, "there would be others who would step in," Capron said, "and they would not be as well informed or as solicitous to the scientists' enthusiasm for the field." He also was quoted in Science coverage of the 2025 conference.

Dean Franita Tolson was quoted in an article about her installation as the first African American dean of the USC Gould School of Law. "In my role as dean, respecting the journeys of those who walked the paths that we now walk helps me to respect and appreciate the journeys of all in our community," she said. "It also helps me to chart a path forward that is sensitive to, and seeks to build on, a history that has emphasized greatness and the principle that if we can dream it, we can achieve it.” Tolson also was featured on KCAL Mornings at 10 as part of this coverage.

Professor Jean Reisz was interviewed by France24 about President Donald Trump's draconian actions concerning immigration. "There's a lot of tension regarding the treatment and dehumanization of immigrants. I think there will be a lot litigation and I think President Trump might be prevented from doing some of the things he wants to do like end Birthright Citizenship," Reisz said. "However, it is possible that he's going to get away with some of these very draconian measures as he amplifies his authority over immigration."

Professor Ed McCaffery was quoted in an article about ways to approach a higher-than-expected tax bill. “You don't have the option of calling the IRS up and crying poverty because they can figure out you have a house, you have securities, so you have to pay your taxes,” says McCaffery. "If you're rich enough to borrow, you’re avoiding the need to pay taxes on the cash you use to live off of and assets that are growing at a faster rate than your debt is accruing."

Professor David Cruz was quoted in an article about California's reaction to President Donald Trump's executive order to ban trans females from competing in women's school sports. “I do not know any legal authority that would let Donald Trump unilaterally forbid transgender girls and women from playing in sex-segregated women’s sports," he said. "There is nothing in the law that would let him order schools, recreational leagues, or other sponsors of sports to simply cease allowing those transgender athletes to compete consistent with their gender identity.” He also was quoted in Newsweek.

Professor Angela Zhang wrote an article about the Chinese AI model DeepSeek, and how the Trump Administration's restrictions on high-tech exports to China have helped the model's success. "Rather than viewing DeepSeek as a stand-in for China, and established industry leaders (such as OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic) as representatives of the U.S., we should see this as a case of an ingenious startup emerging to challenge oligopolistic incumbents — a dynamic that is typically welcomed in open markets," she wrote.

Professor Bernadette Atuahene was a guest on The Brian Lehrer Show and discussed housing inequality regarding her new book Plundered: How Racist Policies Undermine Black Homeownership in America. "Although Plundered begins with Detroit and the Ford Motor Company, it's not just about Detroit," she said. "It's a national story about how racist policies undermine Black homeownership in America."

Professor Brian Peck was quoted in an article about President Donald Trump's recent tariffs and what this means for specific industries such as food, automobiles, and lumber. "If there is a significant increase in tariffs ... those costs will likely be passed onto U.S. consumers and businesses," said Peck. "From Canada, we import oil, lumber, wood and cement. Over 20% of the agriculture products we bring into the U.S. come from Mexico."

Professor Jonathan Barnett co-wrote an article about investors' reactions to Israel's surprisingly booming economy and how economic experts came to a false prediction. "In sum, on reaching their dismal conclusions about the Israeli economy, the analysts’ focalism led them to adopt a myopic perspective that overlooked evidence of Israel’s underlying economic, geopolitical, and demographic advantages," he wrote. "Looking at that would have led to a very different conclusion."

Professor Niels Frenzen was quoted in an article breaking down what the California Values Act is and how President Donald Trump is attempting to break the so-called sanctuary law. “It is an absurdity to be talking about SB 54 as preventing bad, non-citizens with serious criminal convictions from being turned over to (the Department of Homeland Security), it doesn’t do that,” he said. “But those facts are just not part of the political debate. Immigrants who are protected by the sanctuary state law are usually those who are arrested for less serious offenses, such as traffic violations and driving without a license or insurance."

Professor Angela Zhang was quoted in an article about the Chinese-made A.I. startup, DeepSeek, and its impact on tech stocks after its recent release of an updated A.I. model that performs at the level of U.S. models but at the fraction of the cost. "There are at least four Chinese firms that claim to have trained AI models that closely rival the competitors in Silicon Valley," she said. "This is just not a one-off phenomenon. It's actually just one example of the whole AI industry in China." She also was quoted in South China Morning Post, Financial Times, Fortune and others.

Professor Angela Zhang was featured in an article about the current influx of US TikTok users onto RedNote, a Chinese social media app, as well as how both the U.S. and Chinese governments have responded. “It seems unlikely that they will stay long term," she said. "If they do, they may begin producing content that could be seen as politically sensitive by the Chinese government, leading to stricter content controls. This, in turn, could cause many users to leave."

Professor Jean Reisz was featured in an ABC news report about President Donald Trump's executive orders regarding the thousands of refugees across the globe waiting to enter the United States. "They're stranded. Many refugees are coming from refugee camps where they've spent many years or they are living in exile in another country," she said. "This is going to affect a lot of people from Afghanistan, from Syria, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and from Venezuela who are waiting in limbo."

Professor Nathan Perl-Rosenthal was quoted in an article about President Donald Trump's plans to end birthright citizenship and the impact it will have in Texas. "It’s a distinction that has been argued in past efforts to challenge birthright citizenship — and it was rejected by the Supreme Court in a landmark 1898 ruling upholding the right," he said. "The current Supreme Court has shown a willingness to revisit longstanding precedent and the conservative justices could see this as an opening to revisit the 1898 case."

Professor Jean Reisz wrote an expert analysis addressing President Donald Trump’s various executive orders that have changed the way the U.S. processes asylum seekers and migrants at the border, and reviewed several executive actions that have been promised in the weeks ahead, as well as the expected legal actions that will result from those actions. “There will be litigation because asylum is a big part of U.S. law and only a Congressional act can end it,” Reisz wrote. “Using different kinds of national security and public health actions, like Title 42, an emergency health order that allowed the government to turn away migrants at the border because of COVID-19, has been successful in the past at making it harder for people to seek asylum – but a presidential action cannot end asylum.”

Professor Angela Zhang wrote an expert opinion that details the fallout of the TikTok ban and how users are flocking to the Chinese app RedNote (Xiaohongshu). By banning the app, the U.S. government has put itself in a near-untenable position, as users circumvent the ban and the government tries to mitigate national security concerns. This has given China’s leaders leverage in their dealings with President Donald Trump, who has been vocal about his opposition to the app. “As I explored in my recent book, High Wire, centralized decision-making frequently results in fragile, rather than resilient, regulatory outcomes,” Zhang writes. “The TikTok saga offers a stark reminder that an over-concentration of presidential power in shaping U.S. foreign policy – particularly toward China – can lead to similar outcomes. With Trump expected to consolidate executive power, surround himself with loyalists, and operate with fewer institutional constraints during his second term, this trend seems likely to intensify, generating vast unintended consequences.”

Professor Deepika Sharma was quoted in an article following up on the impact of Measure ULA in the two years since it was enacted. Sharma, who is also a member of Measure ULA's Citizen Oversight Committee, detailed how the measure has raised funding to provide emergency rental assistance to Los Angeles residents who are experiencing hardship and are at risk of losing their home. “Not only is that awful for tenants and their families but the cost of an eviction is great on all of us as taxpayers and perpetuates an already devastating housing crisis here in L.A.,” Sharma said.

Professor Angela Zhang was featured in an article about the security concerns from the influx of previous TikTok users entering Chinese platforms such as RedNote. “User data collected by RedNote will be stored in China, whereas TikTok’s user data is stored outside of China. RedNote must comply with Chinese laws, including the Personal Information Protection Law, the Data Security Law, and cross-border data transfer rules,” she said. “In addition to the collection of personal data, another key concern with TikTok is the potential manipulation of its algorithm to influence public opinion in the U.S. Unlike TikTok, whose algorithms are subject to close scrutiny by Oracle, RedNote’s algorithms are subject to close scrutiny by the Chinese government."

Professor D. Daniel Sokol cowrote an op-ed article about the U.S. and Korea's potential to cultivate innovation and expand economically through digital policy making as both nations are undergoing political changes. "Rather than introducing excessive platform regulations that can hinder innovation and investment in the startup ecosystem," the authors wrote, "it seems necessary to establish effective and sophisticated incentives that can promote competition between platforms."

Professor Niels Frenzen was quoted in an article about the lawsuit Huntington Beach has filed against the state of California, claiming that its sanctuary state law is unconstitutional. "The sanctuary law sends a message that state and local governments are not out to arrest people for simply being undocumented immigrants living and trying to survive within the state of California," he said. "We want people to cooperate with police when they’re witnesses, we want people to cooperate with police when they’re victims of crime. If people are fearful of having those in their household being arrested, they’ll become even more embedded in the so-called shadow population. That is just not good for citizens, let alone good for immigrants.”