Talk of the Town
TALK OF THE TOWN with MIKE AGUIRRE Saturdays 11am
FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS with Guest DAVID LOY
David Loy is the legal director of The First Amendment Coalition
Loy is a veteran civil liberties litigator who 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. He joins FAC from the ACLU Foundation of San Diego & Imperial Counties, where he served as legal director for nearly 16 years, overseeing a diverse docket of civil rights cases.
Loy directs FAC’s strategic litigation program, enforcing California and federal open-government laws and defending First Amendment protections. And he will work with other senior staff to champion legislative and policy reforms to strengthen press freedom, protest rights and access to public meetings and information. He will manage two legal fellows and contribute to FAC’s free Legal Hotline.“
David’s deep experience, keen legal mind and passion for the First Amendment make him ideally suited to oversee FAC’s growing legal work—and to expand that work to meet new threats,” said FAC Executive Director David Snyder. “We could not ask for a colleague better prepared to lead FAC’s strategic litigation program into the future. We are overjoyed to begin working with him.”
Earlier in his career, Loy 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 studied history and Chinese language at 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 U.S. Circuit Judge Dolores K. Sloviter of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. David is an active member of the California and New York bars, with inactive status in Washington and Illinois.
He lives in San Diego. Follow him on Twitter.
ABOUT THE FIRST AMENDMENT COALITION
Our Mission
The First Amendment Coalition protects and promotes a free press, freedom of expression, and the people’s right to know. Nonpartisan and nonprofit, FAC believes that the broadest range of engaged and informed communities is essential to the health of our democracy — that the values expressed by the First Amendment provide a blueprint for an inclusive, equitable society and a responsive, accountable government. To that end, FAC educates, advocates, and litigates to advance government transparency and First Amendment protections for all. (Board of Directors, June 2022)
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
FAC recognizes that our mission can only be achieved by actively cultivating diversity, equity and inclusion, both inside and outside the organization. We believe that in order to realize the promise of the values underlying the First Amendment, we must reach and include as broad a range of voices as possible to inform our policies, priorities and programs. We recognize that systemic inequities rooted in, among other things, race and gender require FAC to take the initiative in seeking out and embracing a diversity of perspectives, backgrounds and life experiences. To that end, we commit to actively expanding and diversifying our networks.
We recognize it is our responsibility to allocate our resources in support of and collaboration with institutions, individuals, organizations and coalitions that reflect the diversity of California and the nation, especially those traditionally excluded from power and resources. Fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive community is both a goal in itself and an integral part of carrying out our organizational mission. Read more about this in the summary of our 2021-2026 Strategic Plan.