John C. Eastman Politician

John C. Eastman (born April 21, 1960) is a conservative 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 an editor 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 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 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 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 ActRight 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 senior fellow at the Claremont Institute. On June 4, 2013, he testified before the House Ways and Means Committee about political abuses by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) during the Obama administration.