Chapman University law professor John Eastman, who recently questioned Kamala Harris‘ eligibility to serve as vice president, submitted a Supreme Court brief Wednesday supporting Republican efforts to overturn the presidential election.
Eastman’s brief was filed on behalf of President Trump in support of a lawsuit by Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Texas suit asks the court to void the presidential election results in the four states and direct those states’ legislatures, which are controlled by Republicans, to select the winner. The result would be re-election of Trump.
Eastman’s brief argues that even if there is no proof of actual fraud, the four swing states made unconstitutional changes in their voting processes such as early voting and mail ballots that made it too easy to manipulate the election.
“The constitutional issue is not whether voters committed fraud but whether state officials violated the law by systematically loosening the measures for ballot integrity so that fraud becomes undetectable,” he wrote.
In the brief, he cites the victories of other Republican candidates in the five states as proof that the election was flawed. “The candidate for President at the top of the ticket who provided those coattails did not himself get over his finish line…These things just don’t normally happen,” he wrote.
In August, Eastman wrote an op-ed arguing that Harris is not eligible to be vice president because she is the daughter of immigrants. The column echoed the birther conspiracy championed by Trump that President Obama was not eligible to be President.
Eastman ran unsuccessfully for California Attorney General in 2010 — a position that Harris ended up winning.
The law school at Chapman University, which is located in the city of Orange, is known for a number of conservative faculty members, including right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt.