The rumors that have been flying around the internet all day appear to be true: Chemerinsky says UC Irvine rescinds offer to become law school dean. Why would a startup school treat a major Cosntitutional scholar like this? It seems that, notwithstanding his 20 year publication record, they discovered this week that he's a — wait for it — liberal. Apparently a major donor freaked or something.
Not only is this sort of behavior unheard of, unprincipled, but it's also very stupid. Who would take the job now, after this display of political interference and intolerance?
But meanwhile, hey Erwin, we need a Dean here next year!
Well, Ave Maria’ s Bernie Dobranski may be available soon, and from what I’ve read, he and the UC Irvine folks deserve each other…
Wouldn’t just about any member of the Federalist Society take the job? Amoral is as amoral does, you know. Fealty above competence.
Well they had to drop him when they discovered that Alberto Gonzalez was unexpectedly available.
Wouldn’t it be easier for UC Irvine to find a new Chancellor than a law school Dean at this point?
That was pretty shocking. I’d assumed the politics couldn’t be the real story because it’s so obvious. I thought maybe some unruly character trait had come through in the final negotiations that the chancellor thought would damage a startup school.
But isn’t it true that one can count the number of conservative professors at UM Law on one hand? Perhaps on one finger?
True, this may be due to self-selection. But UM Law students have sat through many a D.M. Jones lecture arguing that self-selection is a reflection of underlying discrimination. Your blog was deafeningly silent on the blatant anti-conservative discrimination against Prof. Rob Natelson at Montanta a couple of years ago. Granted, he’s no Chemerinsky, but Montana is no UC Irvine.
Think of what happened as simply the joys of affirmative action. Since liberals have no problem placing class membership above merit, you should have no complaints against an educational institution seeking to provide opportunities to an underrepresented minority.
The legal academic community will benefit from a greater diversity of views. From a practical standpoint, given that more than one conservative sits on the US Supreme Court, shouldn’t students (even liberal ones) be trained in the arguments that are most persuasive to those justices?
I think Miami should make a push for him!