Conservative hit! UC Irvine dumps liberal Constitutional scholar Chemerinsky as law school dean

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Chemerinsky says UC Irvine rescinds offer to become law school dean
The constitutional scholar says university officials told him the deal was off to head the new school because he was too 'politically controversial.'
By Garrett Therolf and Henry Weinstein, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 12, 2007

Just days after he signed a contract to become the first dean of UC Irvine's new law school, Erwin Chemerinsky was told this week that the deal was off because he was too "politically controversial." Chemerinsky said in an interview today that UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake had flown to North Carolina on Tuesday and told him at a hotel near the airport that that he did not realize the extent to which there were "conservatives out to get me."

Chemerinsky, one of the nation's best known constitutional scholars and a liberal professor at Duke University in Durham, N.C., said he signed a contract last week after being offered the job Aug. 16. He said he had lined up a board of advisors for the new school, including the deans of the UC Berkeley and University of Virginia law schools and three federal judges, including Andrew Guilford, a Bush appointee from Orange County.

Chemerinsky said he was saddened by the decision. "It would have been an exciting opportunity to start a new law school. We live in strange times." Chemerinsky said that Drake told him during a meeting at the Sheraton Hotel near the Raleigh-Durham airport that the decision "had been difficult for him." He said that "concerns" had emerged from the UC regents, which would have had to approve the appointment, Chemerinsky said. The professor said Drake told him that he thought there would have been a "bloody battle" among the regents over the appointment....

***

John Eastman, a conservative constitutional scholar and dean of Chapman University Law School in Orange, who frequently debates Chemerinsky, called UCI's move "a serious misstep."

Chemerinsky has been a professor at Duke since 2004, after 21 years at the USC law school and was one of the finalists for the dean's job at Duke last year, before the university chose David Levi, a federal judge in Sacramento, for the job. During his time in Los Angeles, he helped write the city charter and has been a frequent legal commentator in the media. In April 2005, the professor was named one of "the top 20 legal thinkers in America" by Legal Affairs magazine....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ucilaw13sep13,0,5893599.story?coll=la-home-center

*

ON EDIT: LINK TO A FIRESTORM OF REACTION, MUCH OF IT FROM CHEMERINSKY DEFENDERS ON THE RIGHT --

LAT: Righties defend dismissed lefty law dean Chemerinsky
http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2007/09/righties-defend.html

[Justitia]

1. He should enforce the contract & at least make them pay him. -eom

[Maat]

2. He's my favorite constitutional scholar.

While no one deserves to be a dean more than Professor Chemerinsky, I grew up near Irvine - he's better off not being in the middle of Ultra-rightie-land.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Well, that's a point! (I'm not familiar with that area.) nt

[cascadiance]

4. I think Pepperdine would have been far more empowered to say that to Ken Starr!

Oh, but they're a private institution, so they can be as biased as they want to be! Sheesh!

[Supersedeas]

5. too much law and precedent -- not enough Executive Fiat (Youngstown forgotten)