The Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law Constitutional Jurisprudence Clinic successfully represented the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) in its lawsuit against The United States of America, Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The lawsuit was filed for the illegal disclosure of NOM’s tax return donor information. After the ruling in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the IRS admitted that NOM’s tax return was illegally disclosed by an IRS clerk who failed to redact NOM’s donor information, as the law required. The IRS also agreed to pay NOM’s actual damages, with NOM agreeing to settle for $50,000 of the $58,000 in actual damages it had claimed.

The Constitutional Jurisprudence Clinic provides students with an opportunity to earn three units of clinical class credit conducting research, drafting discovery requests, preparing draft summary judgment motions and appellate briefs, attending hearings, and even preparing briefs for filing with the Supreme Court of the United States. The clinic has for the past decade provided students with the opportunity to learn about the original understanding of the Constitution, and to put those lessons into practice by crafting arguments to the United States Supreme Court. Through its affiliation with The Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, the clinic has offered students the unique opportunity to participate in high profile cases and to understand how the Constitution was intended to protect individual liberty.