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John C. Eastman
Eastman (2013)
BornLincoln, Nebraska, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Dallas (BA)
University of Chicago (JD)
Claremont Graduate School (PhD)
OccupationProfessor
Employer(s)Kirkland & Ellis
Chapman University
Political partyRepublican
SpouseElizabeth Eastman

John C. Eastman is an American professor of law and former dean at the Chapman University School of Law who twice sought political office. He ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for California's 34th congressional district and the office of California Attorney General.

Eastman drew attention in 2020 for an op-ed which erroneously suggested that then-presumed Democratic nominee for U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris might not be legally eligible for the position.

Education

Eastman earned a Bachelor of Arts in politics and economics from the University of Dallas, Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School, and PhD in Government from the Claremont Graduate School. During his time in law school, Eastman worked on the University of Chicago Law Review.

Career

Prior to law school, he served as Director of Congressional and Public Affairs at the United States Commission on Civil Rights in 1989. He was also the unsuccessful 1990 Republican nominee for United States House of Representatives in the California's 34th congressional district.

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 was an attorney with the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis, specializing in civil and constitutional litigation. He later joined Chapman to teach constitutional law. He has also appeared on the nationally-syndicated Hugh Hewitt show commenting on law.

Eastman served as a attorney 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.

Eastman has also represented the North Carolina legislature and the State of Arizona in unsuccessfully petitioning the Supreme Court in cases involving same-sex marriage, abortion, and immigration.

He testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2014 arguing that President Barack Obama's unilateral suspension of deportation for illegal immigrants was unconstitutional.

Elections

1990 congressional campaign

In 1990 Eastman was unopposed in the primary to become the Republican challenger of long term 34th District incumbent Esteban Torres in California's San Gabriel Valley.

California's 34th congressional district election, 1990
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Esteban Torres (incumbent) 55,646 60.70
Republican John Eastman 36,024 39.30
Total votes 91,670 100.00
Democratic hold

California Attorney General campaign

On February 1, 2010, Eastman resigned as Dean of the Chapman University School of Law to pursue the Republican nomination for California Attorney General. On April 1, a Superior Court judge denied Eastman's choice for ballot designation, "Assistant Attorney General", fearing that use of this title, granted by South Dakota for his work on a lawsuit, would be misperceived as a California title. The judge further denied Eastman's second choice, "Taxpayer Advocate/Attorney", but accepted his third choice, "Constitutional Law Attorney". Such designations typically reflect a candidate's current employment or elected office. The judge said the rejected "Assistant Attorney General" title could mislead voters into believing that Eastman had held such a position in California. In the race, Eastman finished second, with 34.2% of the vote, in a three-way primary, to Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who received 47.3%. After the 2010 California Attorney General election happened 2 November 2010, Cooley conceded to Kamala Harris on 24 November 2010.

Board affiliations

Eastman is chairman of the Federalist Society's Federalism & Separation of Powers practice group. He is chairman of the board of the National Organization for Marriage, and a director of the Public Interest Legal Foundation. He is both a member of the board and on the faculty at the Claremont Institute. Eastman sits on the board of advisors of St. Monica's Academy, and the advisory board of the St. Thomas More Law Society of Orange County.

Kamala Harris's Citizenship Controversy

August 2020 Newsweek published op-ed by Eastman questioning 2020 vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris's eligibility for the office. He asserted she would not a U.S. citizen by birth despite being born in Oakland, California, if neither of her parents was a permanent resident at the time of her birth. Eastman said that she could have subsequently obtained citizenship derived from the naturalization of her parents if one had become a citizen prior to her 16th birthday in 1980, allowing her to fulfill the nine-year citizenship requirement required to become a senator in 2017: requiring being a citizen prior to 2008.

Many prominent legal scholars disagreed with Eastman's position, and many compared it to the birther-ism theory against President Barack Obama. Newsweek defended the column. It stated there was no connection between the op-ed and the birther movement. Rather, the op-ed focused on the "long-standing, somewhat arcane legal debate about the precise meaning of the phrase 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof' and the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment", also known as the jus sanguinis or jus soli debate. However, Axios noted that most constitutional scholars do not accept Eastman's view, labeling it "baseless." Axios also criticized him for brushing off the eligibility concerns of 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz, born in Calgary, Canada, in a 2016 National Review op-ed, claiming they were "silly".

Many academics dismissed the legal argument without engaging with it. For instance,Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of Berkeley Law School, told BBC: "Under section 1 of the 14th Amendment, anyone born in the United States is a United States citizen. The Supreme Court has held this since the 1890s. Kamala Harris was born in the United States." Harvard ProfessorLaurence Tribe was similarly dismissive, telling The New York Times “I hadn’t wanted to comment on because it’s such an idiotic theory. There is nothing to it.”

Despite this, the nature of birthright citizenship in America, particularly for children of illegal immigrants, remains the subject of scholarly debate and public disagreement.

References

  1. "Faculty Profile". www.chapman.edu.
  2. Chief, Ken Williams-SDGLN Editor in (September 22, 2011). "Meet NOM's new face of hate: John C. Eastman". San Diego Gay and Lesbian News. Retrieved August 16, 2020. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  3. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/08/kamala-harris-birther-birthright-citizenship-claremont.html
  4. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/us/politics/trump-kamala-harris.html
  5. https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/08/18/heres-kamala-harris-birth-certificate-end-of-debate/
  6. https://apnews.com/fe4e75db0007c1854e98cb6f2d3488c1
  7. "John C. Eastman - C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org.
  8. "California's 34th Congressional District - Ballotpedia".
  9. "Dean John Eastman On The Powers Of The Senate Vis-à-vis The SCOTUS Vacancy « The Hugh Hewitt Show". The Hugh Hewitt Show. February 15, 2016. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  10. "Search - Supreme Court of the United States". www.supremecourt.gov.
  11. "Search - Supreme Court of the United States". www.supremecourt.gov.
  12. "Search - Supreme Court of the United States". www.supremecourt.gov.
  13. "Search - Supreme Court of the United States". www.supremecourt.gov.
  14. "'Prosecutorial Discretion' Does Not Allow the President to 'Change the Law'" (PDF). Hearing on “Keeping Families Together: The President’s Executive Action On Immigration And The Need To Pass Comprehensive Reform”. December 10, 2014. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  15. , Los Angeles Times, Mike Ward, October 25, 1990. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  16. California Elections Page. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  17. 1990 primary election, California Secretary of State, March Fong Eu, June 5, 1990. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  18. "Eastman resigns as Dean of the Chapman University School of Law"; accessed April 27, 2014. Archived July 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  19. 2 AG hopefuls from O.C. lose ballot fight, Orange County Register, Martin Wisckol, April 1, 2010. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  20. "John Eastman". Ballotpedia. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
  21. Anderson, Paul. "OC Professor Defends Saying Kamala Harris Ineligible for VP, Echoing 'Birther' Lie". Times of San Diego. City News Service. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  22. "StackPath". fedsoc.org. Archived from the original on January 29, 2013.
  23. Crary, David (September 22, 2011). "John Eastman Named National Organization For Marriage Chairman". Huffington Post. Associated Press. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  24. "National Organization for Marriage". nationformarriage.org.
  25. "Board of Directors - Public Interest Legal Foundation".
  26. "Claremont Institute - Board of Directors". www.claremont.org.
  27. "Curriculum and Faculty Committee - The Claremont Institute". www.claremont.org.
  28. "Directors and Advisors - St. Monica Academy".
  29. "AD VERITATEM" (PDF). December 2013. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  30. ^ Eastman, John C. (August 12, 2020). "Some questions for Kamala Harris about eligibility | Opinion". Newsweek. Retrieved August 14, 2020. Were Harris' parents lawful permanent residents at the time of her birth? If so, then under the actual holding of Wong Kim Ark, she should be deemed a citizen at birth—that is, a natural-born citizen—and hence eligible. Or were they instead, as seems to be the case, merely temporary visitors, perhaps on student visas issued pursuant to Section 101(15)(F) of Title I of the 1952 Immigration Act? If the latter were indeed the case, then derivatively from her parents, Harris was not subject to the complete jurisdiction of the United States at birth, but instead owed her allegiance to a foreign power or powers—Jamaica, in the case of her father, and India, in the case of her mother—and was therefore not entitled to birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment as originally understood .. If neither was ever naturalized, or at least not naturalized before Harris' 16th birthday (which would have allowed her to obtain citizenship derived from their naturalization under the immigration law, at the time), then she would have had to become naturalized herself in order to be a citizen. That does not appear to have ever happened, yet without it, she could not have been "nine Years a Citizen of the United States" before her election to the U.S. Senate.
  31. "Editor's Note: Eastman's Newsweek column has nothing to do with racist birtherism". Newsweek. August 13, 2020. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  32. Savitsky, Shane. "Trump campaign official pushes baseless Newsweek op-ed claiming Harris may not be VP-eligible". Axios. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
  33. "Trump stokes 'birther' conspiracy theory about Kamala Harris - BBC News". Bbc.com. October 20, 1964. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  34. Katie Rogers. "Trump Encourages Racist Conspiracy Theory About Kamala Harris - The New York Times". Nytimes.com. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  35. Ashley Jardina (Novermber 2, 2018). </ "What Americans really think about birthright citizenship - The Washington Post". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved September 8, 2020. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

Academic offices
Preceded byParham Williams 3rd Dean of the Chapman University School of Law
2007–2010 		Succeeded byTom Campbell
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