Fowler School of Law Professor John Eastman Testifies Before U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts

Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law Professor John Eastman
testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts
on Wednesday, July 22, 2015. At the hearing, entitled “With Prejudice: Supreme Court Activism and Possible Solutions,” Professor Eastman was invited to testify on the recent proposal by Senator and Chairman of the subcommittee Ted Cruz to implement retention elections for Supreme Court justices. In his testimony, Professor Eastman applauded the efforts to propose an amendment to adopt a plan of judicial retention elections. Professor Eastman also offered his own ideas for “two additional checks for [the] Committee’s consideration” that might serve to curb usurpations by the federal judiciary: (1) Professor Eastman called for “an Amendment that would allow for a majority of the States to override an erroneous decision of the Supreme Court”; and (2) he suggested an “Amendment that allows Congress, by a supermajority vote of each House—perhaps 2/3—to override an erroneous decision of the Supreme Court.” Professor Eastman explained that, while these remedies would “be utilized only in the most egregious of circumstances,” nonetheless “the very existence of such remedies would likely have a very salutary effect, providing an added encouragement to members of the judiciary to stay within the bounds of their judicial office.”

Read Professor Eastman’s full testimony
.

Watch the full hearing
. Professor Eastman’s testimony begins at 59:00.

 

John Eastman
is the Henry Salvatori Professor of Law and Community Service and the Founding Director of the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, which sponsors the Constitutional Jurisprudence Clinic at the Fowler School of Law. Prior to joining the Fowler School of Law faculty in August 1999, he served as a law clerk with Justice Clarence Thomas at the Supreme Court of the United States and with Judge J. Michael Luttig at the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Dr. Eastman earned his JD from the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated with high honors in 1995. He was selected for membership in the Order of the Coif and was a member of the Law Review, a Bradley Fellow for Research in Constitutional History and an Olin Fellow in Law & Economics. Dr. Eastman also has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Government from the Claremont Graduate School, with fields of concentration in Political Philosophy, American Government, Constitutional Law, and International Relations. He has a B.A. in Politics and Economics from the University of Dallas.