Political party Republican Name John Eastman | Role Law professor Party Republican Party | |
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Born April 21, 1960 (age 64)
Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S. ( 1960-04-21 ) Spouse(s) Elizabeth C'de Baca Eastman Profession Law professor and constitutional law scholar Education University of Chicago, University of Dallas, University of Chicago Law School | ||
Dr john c eastman sept 2011 part 1 of 5
John C. Eastman (born April 21, 1960) is an American law professor and constitutional law scholar. He is the Henry Salvatori Professor of Law & Community Service, and former Dean at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California. He is also the Director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm affiliated with the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy.
Eastman earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a member of the law review. He also has a Ph.D. in Government from the Claremont Graduate School. He earned his B.A. in Politics and Economics from the University of Dallas. Prior to law school, he was Director of Congressional & Public Affairs at the United States Commission on Civil Rights during the Reagan administration. He was also the unsuccessful 1990 Republican nominee for United States Congress in the 34th District of California.
After law school, he clerked for Judge J. Michael Luttig at the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Justice Clarence Thomas at the Supreme Court of the United States, then worked as an attorney for the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis, specializing in civil and constitutional litigation. He later joined Chapman to teach constitutional law. He also appears weekly on the nationally-syndicated Hugh Hewitt show commenting on law.
On February 1, 2010, Eastman resigned as Dean of the Chapman University School of Law to pursue the Republican nomination for California Attorney General. He finished second in the primary to Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who lost to Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2010 general election. Eastman served as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of South Dakota, representing it in a denied petition to the Supreme Court of the United States in a constitutional challenge to federal spending]. He has also represented the North Carolina legislature and the State of Arizona in cases before the Supreme Court involving same-sex marriage, abortion, and immigration.
Eastman serves as Chairman of the Federalist Society's Federalism & Separation of Powers practice group. He is Chairman of the Board of the National Organization for Marriage, a member of the Board of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a member of the Board of Advisors of St. Monica's Academy, a member of the Advisory Board of the St. Thomas More Law Society of Orange County, and a Member of the Board and senior fellow at the Claremont Institute.
He has testified before Congress, including:
His scholarship] and Heritage Foundation white paper about the meaning of the 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause, concluding that the Constitution does not mandate birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants, became the subject of national discussion in 2015 after Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump raised the subject in several speeches and claimed that some of the nation's top constitutional scholars disagree that the 14th Amendment mandates automatic citizenship for those in the country unlawfully. Eastman was reported to have been one of those scholars. He also published a scholarly article in 2015 entitled "Cheating Marriage: A Tragedy in Three Acts," exposing the collusive nature of many of the same-sex marriage lawsuits around the country. His scholarship, which most often focuses on the structural aspects of the United States Constitution, has been published in such prestigious journals as the University of Chicago Law Review, the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the Georgetown Law Journal.