Edward J. Erler received his B.A. in political science from San Jose State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate School. Dr. Erler is Professor of Political Science emeritus at California State University, San Bernardino, where he served as department chair from 1984-1991, and is senior fellow and member of the Board of Directors of The Claremont Institute.
He is the author of The American Polity: Essays on the Theory and Practice of Constitutional Government; Property and the Pursuit of Happiness: Locke, The Declaration of Independence, Madison and the Challenge of the Administrative State; The United States in Crisis: Citizenship, Immigration, and the Nation State; co-author of The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration; co-editor with Ken Masugi of The Rediscovery of America: Essays by Harry V. Jaffa on the New Birth of Politics; he has published numerous articles in law reviews and professional journals. Among his most recent articles are “From Subjects to Citizens: The Social Contract Origins of American Citizenship”; “Marbury v. Madison and the Progressive Transformation of Judicial Power”; “Aristotle, Locke, and the American Founding;” “The Decline and Fall of the Right to Property: Government as Universal Landlord;” and several articles in the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. Dr. Erler was a member of the California Advisory Commission on Civil Rights from 1988-2006 and served on the California Constitutional Revision Commission in 1996. He has testified on two occasions before the House Judiciary Committee on the issue of birthright citizenship and on voting rights and other civil rights issues before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 2005 he traveled to Iraq to meet with members of the Constitution Draft Commission.
