American legal scholar
Gabriel Jack Chin is an author, legal scholar, and
Professor at the
University of California, Davis School of Law .
[1]
He teaches a variety of courses, including
Criminal Law , Immigration, Criminal Appellate Advocacy, and Race and Law.
In the news
Chin has been quoted in a number of newspapers, including the
New York Times
[2] and
The Huffington Post on the
Trayvon Martin case.
[3] He also wrote an
op-ed about the topic for
CNN .
[4]
In 2010, he commented for The New York Times,
[5] and
The Washington Post on Arizona's
SB 1070 statute.
[6]
His 2008 legal analysis, which focused on a 1937 law and the language of the
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , concluded that U.S. Senator
John McCain is not eligible to be elected President of the United States.
[7] Chin's 2011 legal analysis entitled "Who's really eligible to be president?" concluded, after reviewing the Fourteenth Amendment and the applicable common law as interpreted by the
Supreme Court of the United States , that President
Barack Obama is a
natural born citizen given that Obama was a citizen "by birth" under the Fourteenth Amendment.
[8]
In 2011, Chin supervised members of UC Davis's Asian Pacific American Law Students Association who sought posthumous admission to the
State Bar of California for
Hong Yen Chang , who was denied admission in 1890. In 2015, the
Supreme Court of California would grant the students' petition.
[9]
Biography
In 1985 he received a
BA from
Wesleyan University . In 1988 he received a
J.D. from
University of Michigan Law School . In 1995 he received an
LL.M. from
Yale Law School , and was an Editor of the
Yale Law & Policy Review . He is an elected member of the
American Law Institute . Before becoming a law professor, "[he] clerked for U.S. District Judge
Richard P. Matsch in
Denver and practiced with
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and
The Legal Aid Society of New York ."
[10]
He was named in the
"Most Cited Law Professors By Specialty, 2000-2007" , and in the
"50 Most Cited Law Professors Who Entered Teaching Since 1992" , surveys by
University of Chicago professor
Brian Leiter . Professor Chin appeared on the October 16, 2006 episode of
The Daily Show with
Jon Stewart on a segment titled
"Hawk the Vote" discussing the legality of the
Arizona Voter Rewards Initiative" , a proposal to offer financial incentives for voting. He also criticized the proposal on
Marketplace on November 2, 2006.
[11] In 2002, he appeared on
NPR 's
Morning Edition discussing his efforts, in conjunction with law students, to repeal racist
Jim Crow laws still on the books.
[12] He was named one of the
"25 Most Notable Asians in America" by
A Magazine for his work in this area.
Books
Chin has edited and contributed to a number of books, including:
Other works
Chin is the author or co-author of many legal papers, including:
"Unjustified: The Practical Irrelevance of the Justification/Excuse Distinction" , 43 Michigan Journal of Law Reform (2009)
"Beyond the Super-Majority: Post-Adoption Ratification of the Equality Amendments" , 50 Ariz. L. Rev. 25 (2008)(co-author)
"The Tyranny of the Minority: Jim Crow and the Counter-Majoritarian Difficulty" , 43 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 65 (2008) (co-author)
"Unexplainable on Grounds of Race: Doubts about Yick Wo" , 2008 Illinois Law Review 1359.
"A War on Drugs or a War on Immigrants? Expanding the Definition of 'Drug Trafficking' in Determining Aggravated Felon Status for Non-Citizens" , 64 Md. L. Rev. 875 (2005) (co-author)
Jim Crow's Long Goodbye, 21 Const. Comment. 107 (2004)
"Race, The War on Drugs, and the Collateral Consequences of Criminal Conviction" , 6 Iowa J. Gender, Race, & Just. 253 (2003), reprinted in Civil Penalties, Social Consequences 27
Pledging Allegiance to the Constitution: The First Amendment and Loyalty Oaths for Faculty at Private Universities, 64 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 431 (2003)
"Effective Assistance of Counsel and the consequences of guilty Pleas" , 87 Cornell L. Rev. (2002) (co-author)
Can a Reasonable Doubt have an Unreasonable Price? Limitations on Attorney's Fees in Criminal Cases , 41 B.C. L. Rev. 1 (1999) (co-author)
"The Civil Rights Revolution Comes to Immigration Law: A New Look at the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965" , 75 North Carolina L. Rev. 273 (1996).
"The Plessy Myth: Justice Harlan and the Chinese Cases" , 82 Iowa L. Rev. 151 (1996), excerpted in F. Michael Higginbotham, Race Law: Cases, Commentary, and Questions 327 (2001)
"Why Senator John McCain Cannot Be President: Eleven Months and a Hundred Yards Short of Citizenship" , Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No. 08-14 (2008).
References
^
ucdavis.edu
^ Schwartz, John
In Martin Case, Tough Choice Looms for Prosecutor New York Times 2012-04-12
^
"George Zimmerman's Notoriety Raises Concerns for Fair Trial" .
HuffPost . 13 April 2012.
^
"Why Trayvon Martin case charges are a victory for legal system - CNN" . Archived from
the original on 2012-04-22. Retrieved 2012-04-23 .
^ Chin, Gabriel
A Bad law, A Careful Judge New York Times 2009-09-29
^ Chin, Gabriel & Johnson, Kevin
Profiling's Enabler: High Court Ruling Underpins Arizona Immigration Law Washington Post 2010-07-13
^ Liptak, Adam
A Citizen, but 'Natural Born'? New York Times 2008-07-11 retrieved 2008-07-14
^
"Who's really eligible to be president?" .
CNN .
^ Dolan, Maura (March 16, 2015).
"Chinese immigrant, denied law license in 1890, gets one posthumously" . Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 18 March 2015 .
^
Faculty/Chin , law.ucdavis.edu. Faculty & Administration. Gabriel "Jack" Chin. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
^ "Arizona Considers Election Lottery"
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/11/02/arizona_considers_election_lottery
Archived 2012-07-19 at
archive.today
^ Racist Land Laws, Morning Edition, July 1, 2002
https://www.npr.org/2002/07/01/1145933/racist-land-laws
External links
International National Academics