Former Trump attorney John Eastman has joined University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax’s legal team as she continues her challenge against the university, bringing a prominent and controversial figure into an already closely watched dispute over academic speech and discipline.
Eastman formally entered the case through a court filing last week, roughly five months after California revoked his law license over his role in efforts to challenge Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election.
Wax’s appeal is before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. Eastman has been admitted to that court’s bar since 2017, according to the court’s attorney database, meaning his California disbarment does not automatically prevent him from appearing in the federal appellate case.
Eastman has argued that his California disciplinary proceedings were politically motivated and said he does not anticipate problems with his participation before the 3rd Circuit. He also characterized Wax’s dispute with Penn as part of what he described as a wider campaign to silence controversial views.
He is expected to present arguments for Wax when the appeals court hears the case in November.
Wax sued Penn after the university suspended her from teaching for a year following an investigation into public comments she had made about minority groups. She alleged that the university had applied its free-speech rules more harshly to white faculty members while treating comparable conduct by racial minorities differently. Wax has rejected accusations that she is racist.
A federal judge in Philadelphia dismissed her lawsuit, finding her racial-discrimination claims implausible. Wax later appealed, arguing that the lower court improperly accepted Penn’s description of disputed facts contained in disciplinary records and applied an overly narrow standard to her retaliation claims. Penn has asked the appeals court to leave the dismissal in place.
Wax has taught at Penn’s law school since 2001 and has had a long-running dispute with university administrators. Her views have drawn controversy for years, including after she co-authored an opinion piece arguing that Anglo-Protestant cultural norms were superior. Calls for her dismissal followed.
Eastman’s own legal history has made his arrival in the case particularly notable. A former law professor and dean at Chapman University, he represented Trump in a failed Supreme Court effort challenging election results from four states following the 2020 presidential election.
He also prepared legal arguments suggesting that then-Vice President Mike Pence could reject electoral votes from several battleground states during Congress’s certification of the election. Pence rejected that interpretation, saying the Constitution did not give him such authority.
The California Supreme Court later disbarred Eastman after disciplinary proceedings found that he had violated professional rules involving misleading courts and false public statements.
His involvement now places the former Trump legal adviser at the center of another high-profile legal battle—this time involving academic freedom, university discipline and the boundaries of protected speech at one of the country’s leading universities.
