Gabriel Jack Chin is an author, legal scholar, and
Professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
at the
University of California, Davis School of Law
The University of California, Davis School of Law (Martin Luther King Jr. Hall), referred to as UC Davis School of Law and commonly known as King Hall, is the professional graduate law school of the University of California, Davis. The school rece ...
.
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
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
[Schwartz, Joh]
''In Martin Case, Tough Choice Looms for Prosecutor''
''New York Times'' 2012-04-12 and
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
on the
Trayvon Martin
Trayvon Benjamin Martin (February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012) was a 17-year-old African-American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic American. Martin had accompa ...
case. He also wrote an
op-ed about the topic for
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
.
In 2010, he commented for The New York Times, and
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
on Arizona's
SB 1070
The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (introduced as Arizona Senate Bill 1070 and commonly referred to as Arizona SB 1070) is a 2010 legislative Act in the U.S. state of Arizona that was the broadest and strictest an ...
statute.
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. 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
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
is a
natural born citizen
A natural-born-citizen clause, if present in the constitution of a country, requires that its president or vice president be a natural born citizen. The constitutions of a number of countries contain such a clause, but there is no universally ac ...
given that Obama was a citizen "by birth" under the Fourteenth Amendment.
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
Hong Yen Chang (張康仁; 1859 or 1860Chinese Educational Mission Connections, http://www.cemconnections.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54. - August 4, 1926) was reportedly the first Chinese immigrant licensed to practice law i ...
, who was denied admission in 1890. In 2015, the
Supreme Court of California would grant the students' petition.
Biography
In 1985 he received a
BA from
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...
. In 1988 he received a
J.D. from
University of Michigan Law School
The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparative Law (MCL ...
. In 1995 he received an
LL.M. from
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...
, 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, "
eclerked for U.S. District Judge
Richard P. Matsch in
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
and practiced with
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1948, the firm consistently ranks among the top U.S. law firms by revenue. The company is known for its wor ...
and
The Legal Aid Society of New York."
He was named in th
"Most Cited Law Professors By Specialty, 2000-2007" and in th
"50 Most Cited Law Professors Who Entered Teaching Since 1992" surveys by
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
professor
Brian Leiter
Brian Leiter (; born 1963) is an American philosopher and legal scholar who is Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago Law School and founder and Director of Chicago's Center for Law, Philosophy & Human Values. ...
. Professor Chin appeared on the October 16, 2006 episode of
The Daily Show
''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form from ...
with
Jon Stewart on a segment title
"Hawk the Vote"discussing the legality of th
a proposal to offer financial incentives for voting. He also criticized the proposal on
Marketplace
A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...
on November 2, 2006. In 2002, he appeared on
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
's
Morning Edition
''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 A ...
discussing his efforts, in conjunction with law students, to repeal racist
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
still on the books.
[Racist Land Laws, Morning Edition, July 1, 2002 https://www.npr.org/2002/07/01/1145933/racist-land-laws] He was named one of th
"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:
* United States Commission on Civil Rights: Reports on Asian Pacific Americans (2005)
* United States Commission on Civil Rights: Reports on Voting (2005) (co-editor)
* United States Commission on Civil Rights: Reports on the Police (2005)
* The United States Commission on Immigration Reform: The Interim and Final Reports and Commentary (2000)
* Immigration and the Constitution (2000) (co-editor)
* Affirmative Action and the Constitution (1998)
* New York City Policy Corruption Investigation Commissions, 1894-1994 (1997)
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
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chin, Gabriel J.
American legal scholars
University of Arizona faculty
University of Michigan Law School alumni
Wesleyan University alumni
Yale Law School alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
University of California, Davis faculty
Western New England University faculty
University of Cincinnati College of Law faculty
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom people