Furor After Law School Head Rejected Over Conservative Pressure

In a showdown over academic freedom, a prominent legal scholar said Wednesday that the University of California, Irvine's chancellor had succumbed to conservative political pressure in rescinding his contract to head the university's new law school, a charge the chancellor vehemently denied.

Erwin Chemerinsky, a well-known liberal expert on constitutional law, said he had signed a contract Sept. 4, only to be told Tuesday by Chancellor Michael V. Drake that he was voiding their deal because Chemerinsky was too liberal and the university had underestimated "conservatives out to get me."

Later Wednesday, however, Drake said there had been no outside pressure and that he had decided to reject Chemerinsky, now of Duke University and formerly of the University of Southern California, because he felt the law professor's commentaries were "polarizing" and would not serve the interests of California's first new public law school in 40 years.

Read the full story here.

Comments

[baylaw73]

07:17 PM on 09/17/2007

Hooray! They hired him! And California just gets better for it.
*does gleeful victory dance*

[MagisterLudi]

12:31 PM on 09/15/2007

Why a school that gets so much money from taxpayers so scared to lose private money?
What, they won't be able to sell the school's naming rights to some Republican scam artist businessman? Enron School of Law, UCI. Sounds great!

[wordvarc]

02:34 AM on 09/15/2007

The GOP mantra led by Scott Baugh is "ain't it horrible...but he was to liberal for the job in the OC anyway."

Some think that Chancellor Drake's hubris, not wanting to be upstaged by such a scholar and personality of a UCI Dean, was behind his career ending buffoonary.

Look to George Argyros, however, the anti-diplomat GOP donor from the OC who when grafted the bushie US ambassadorship to Spain was so scared he lived offshore on his yacht.

Consider also Scott Baugh, and the Lincoln 'Log Cabin' Club to be the goons behind Drake's desultory decision.
.

[CarmanK]

09:12 PM on 09/14/2007

Why is anyone surprised that the conservatives want to establish another Pat Robertson school of law paid for with public dollars. It's just another way for the Repugs to earmark public dollars for special interests. What better way to perpetuate their imperial presidency and strict constructionist ideology, than to indoctrinate the next generation of lawyers? And why pay for it with your private dollars when you can spend the taxpayers?

[MagisterLudi]

08:49 PM on 09/14/2007

HEY, THEY CAN ALWAYS HIRE GONZALEZ!!!! HE"S AVIALABLE

Cherminsky was vetted and hired and then long-time UC Irvine right-wing supporters told the chancellor Drake that if Cherminsky is hired all the money are walking.
This was an obvious bluff. Who they gonna give money to? Orange College? Drake pissed his pants and fired Cherminsky. End of story.
Here are 2 quotes. You can choose to believe Drake( if you're a moron).
Drake:" My decision was absolutely not based on Professor Cherminsky's place on the political spectrum."

Cherminsky's op-ed in L.A. TImes states:"
Michael V. Drake...told me that I had proved to be "too politically controversial." Those, by the way, were the exact words that he said I could use to describe the reason for the decision."

Now who you gonna believe, the bureaucrat hack
bastard or a respected scholar?

I go with Cherminsky... SHAME On UCI....

[Purple Girl]

09:04 AM on 09/14/2007

Universities are places to learn how to ask the pertinent questions and discover new ways of thinking to solve problems. All views should be valid- it's called true diversity. Unfortunately, it appears that only liberal thinking is considered too 'out of the box'- there some conservative thought I think our out of the box,but we need to examine them to see them for what they are- limited curiousity and reason.Sound like the Bush/Cheney doctrine, limit questioning and information,then the answers are obvious- right?

[Merrysunshine]

08:22 AM on 09/14/2007

Monette wrote, "Maybe he scares them because of the very fact he knows Constitutional law so well. Of course, the way things are going now, we may see Constitutional law being taught in the history department."

George W. Bush: “Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

Will they be teaching real history, or semi-real history using Neil Bush's COW's? Is it live, or is it Memorex?

[Where is Jesus?]

12:38 PM on 09/15/2007

I have heard this reference to Bush saying, “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

Did he really say that? Unbelievable! Could anyone please post a link that shows when and where he made this statement? I would love to read the article/blog, etc.

If he really said this, then he sould have been instantly escorted out of the White House as a traitor.

[Monette Monet]

12:27 AM on 09/14/2007

Maybe he scares them because of the very fact he knows Constitutional law so well. Of course, the way things are going now, we may see Constitutional law being taught in the history department.
"Yes Junior, long ago we had this wonderful document that protected your rights and allowed you to speak freely...now it is history."

[Where is Jesus?]

12:33 PM on 09/15/2007

That is the point. Conservatives don't want people to understand the constitution. They obviously don't. The constitutiion is a threat to them because, if actually followed, it would prevent them from forcing their pseudo fundamentalist religious-taliban beliefs on everyone else. They don't like what the constitution stands for. In fact, they would be happy if we just decided to make it null and void so they could write their own constitution that would only serve their interests.

[baylaw73]

10:26 PM on 09/13/2007

I'm ashamed of my alma mater. Professor Chemerensky is HIGHLY respected. He' also a genius. He taught the Constitutional Law portion of my Bar prep class from MEMORY. How many of you can give a three-hour, complex, perfectly structured talk on ANY topic from memory? This is a terrible loss for that new school. But not a surprise for a school trapped behind the Orange Curtain.

[mrcontinental]

12:44 AM on 09/14/2007

If he's such a genius why is he wasting his time with law?

Can't he find a USEFUL field to work in?

Something that might benefit mankind perhaps.

[baylaw73]

09:48 PM on 09/16/2007

Unless you are content with being ignorant and hateful, I suggest you educate yourself a bit about the role of lawyers in keeping the commercial economy going. Based on your profile, that seems to be an important topic to you.
Also, as if it needs pointing out, your mindless bigotry is really embarrassing.

[drblack]

04:53 PM on 09/13/2007

Republicans hate anyone who uses the Constitution to counter their march toward a Chinese style of government. NeoCONS steal American Freedom and prosperity.

[chinohillster]

04:24 PM on 09/13/2007

People, people, people: Do you not understand?
What is _Alberto Gonzales_ supposed to do when hhe is no longer Attorney General?

[mrcontinental]

02:48 PM on 09/13/2007

We have to many lawyer anyway.

Shutdown all law schools and let them work for their living as opposed to being parasites.

[baylaw73]

10:22 PM on 09/13/2007

I like that you misspell "too" and then failed to pluralize "lawyer." It makes the stupidity of your argument that much more patent. Without lawyers, our economy would fall apart almost overnight. How do you think laws are enforced in the commercial world, the contract police? I take this as a typical idiotic attack on so-called "trial lawyers," who represent a tiny minority of all attorneys.

[mrcontinental]

12:38 AM on 09/14/2007

Oh really? Keep telling yourself that junior.

You're all LEECHES. Every last one of you.

And to even imply that our judicial system works is laughable. He who has the most money wins.

Go soak your head in a bucket of ice water.

[LittleBrother]

02:41 PM on 09/13/2007

Another casualty of academic fecklessness joins Ward Churchill and Norman Finkelstein!

University administrators are not profiles in courage; they may well pay lip service to academic freedom, but they act like it’s all about the benjamins.

[wordvarc]

01:15 PM on 09/13/2007

UCI NEOCONS

So much for justice and a good liberal education.

Neocons now rival extremist Muslims who teach only the Koran in schools.

Maybe UCI will become the west coast franchise of Pat Robertson's pedantic law school whose graduates passed the bushie litmus test and populated Gonzo's DOJ.
.

[daniel155]

10:58 AM on 09/13/2007

Sure political views should not be a qualification for academic hiring and promotion.

But the same people who are up in arms about this are probably the same people who tried to run the Bush head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting out of town because he had the temerity to put on The Wall Street Journal Editorial program on PBS because he thought it needed more balance.

Also, below this article is another article where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says he will block Ted Olson if he is nominated to be attorney general because of political reasons.

What is happening to this law professor probably is not right but it is what happens when everything becomes politicized.

What goes around, comes around.

[HighPlainsAg]

11:48 AM on 09/13/2007

There is a huge difference between refusing to hire a teacher at an educational institution because he doesn't adhere to your personal political philosophy and refusing to seat a political crony in the most powerful legal position in the country.

Diversity of opinion, supported by good argument, is the life blood of education. "Frito" Gonzalez (Bush's nickname for his respected legal colleague) is the poster child for what happens when the law is administered as a tool of partisan politics.

Bush doesn't get to make another of his bum boys the national attorney. If Clinton had done the same thing, the same people would be screaming "partisan politics." One set of rules for everybody, folks.

[daniel155]

09:32 PM on 09/13/2007

I could cite a lot of other cronyism, as you describe it, such as Robert F. Kennedy being appointed by his brother to be AG and Carter appointing his friend Griffin Bell to be AG as well as Nixon and John Mitchell and Reagan and Ed Meese. It did not start with Gonzales.

But you missed my whole point. That is when everything has become politicized at every level it leads to stuff like this. If Ken Starr was being appointed dean of that same law school, you would probably be leading the charge against him.

Unfortunately, when there is a dispute over appointments like this it is often a matter of whose ox is getting gored.

I too support academic freedom but it has to work both ways.