This paper (in progress) examines lawsuits against universities initiated by students accused of sexual misconduct and shows how the routine legal practice of private attorneys can promote the goals of a wider social movement by shaping the public narrative. Drawing on a sample of 381 U.S colleges and universities, we analyzed all student sexual misconduct lawsuits filed against these schools between 1992 to 2019, triangulated with the text of the court filings, interviews with attorneys and advocates, and media coverage of these lawsuits. Our analysis makes visible how individual litigation contributes to the construction of a political narrative. We find that legal complaints not only set out the facts and legal reasoning of a case, but serve as a narrative for journalists. Lawyers receive free publicity when their cases are picked up by the press, generating more business and eventually expertise in this niche. Such repeat players are then treated as “experts” by journalists, with “standing” to speak about the problem of federal and university overreach. Attorneys developed ties with advocates who tracked these lawsuits in ways that permitted quantification of the problem, and journalists used these “litigation trends” as evidence of a crisis. By finding the political in private lawsuits, we propose ways to make sense of the shifting politics of litigation and the growing use of private lawsuits for political ends.
Presentations:
Sandra R. Levitsky, Jesse Yeh, & Elizabeth A. Armstrong (May 2023). Litigation Politics: Countermovement Activity in Campus Sexual Assault Litigation [Paper session]. Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Sandra R. Levitsky, Jesse Yeh, & Elizabeth A. Armstrong (21 April 2023). Litigation Politics: Countermovement Activity in Campus Sexual Assault Litigation. Future of Activism Workshop: Ford Center of Global Citizenship, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
“Patterns in Litigation Involving Campus Sexual Misconduct Adjudication, 1992 – 2019.” (28 May 2021). Annual Meeting on Law and Society.
Team Members:
