Eastman Asks SCOTUS To Stop California’s ‘Politicized’ Barfare

Constitutional attorney John Eastman is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the California Bar’s “politicized” efforts to strip him of his ability to practice law.

The Claremont Institute senior fellow filed a petition on Friday requesting that the high court take up and hear arguments in his case, Eastman v. State Bar of California. The matter deals with the Golden State’s recent decision to strip Eastman of his law license over legal advice he gave President Trump in the latter’s 2020 election challenges.

As characterized by the left-wing States United Democracy Center, the California Bar “alleged Eastman tried to ‘plan, promote, and assist then-President Trump in executing a strategy, unsupported by facts or law, to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by obstructing the count of electoral votes of certain states.’” The Federalist’s Brianna Lyman noted, however, that “this had nothing to do with ‘ethics’ or even ‘crime,’ and a review of the 11 charges the bar filed against Eastman shows they boil down to one thing: punishing Eastman for representing Trump and raising legitimate questions about the 2020 election results.”

The California Supreme Court affirmed Eastman’s disbarment in April. The decision came after the constitutional scholar was forced to endure repeated antagonism from the lower court judge tasked with overseeing his trial.

In their SCOTUS petition, Eastman and his legal team argued that California “disciplined Eastman for speech at the core of the First Amendment: legal advice, constitutional advocacy, public commentary, and petitioning directed to government officials on matters of extraordinary public concern.” They noted that the California Bar’s Review Department “acknowledged that this speech required strict scrutiny, but then failed to apply that standard” in the case.

“That error,” they wrote, “let California collapse the essential distinction between provably false factual assertions and disputed legal opinions, treating contested constitutional advocacy as knowing dishonesty simply because State authorities disagreed with the views advanced.”

[READ: John Eastman Asks SCOTUS To Protect Speech Rights Of Lawyers Doing Their Jobs]

Eastman and Co. went on to highlight the ramifications such “errors” could have nationwide. They argued that if state bars are permitted to “target a lawyer’s license to practice because of the side he took on behalf of a client in a hotly debated matter,” then “lawyers will be chilled from representing unpopular clients, testing unsettled constitutional questions, or urging government actors to act on disputed grievances.”

“This Court should grant review and overturn the revocation of Eastman’s bar license, reaffirming that while States may regulate genuine attorney misconduct, they may not use disciplinary authority to punish protected advocacy by relabeling it as professional misconduct,” the petition reads.

Eastman is one of several conservative attorneys targeted by the left’s barfare machine for his 2020 election conduct. Other notable victims include Jeff Clark, Rudy Giuliani, and Ken Paxton.

The Supreme Court will be returning for its upcoming October 2026 term in the coming weeks. At least four justices must agree to consider a case before it can be heard by the full court.