UC Irvine rehires liberal dean

Erwin Chemerinsky was out. Now he’s back in.

The high-profile legal scholar and Duke University professor has been “re-hired” to become the founding dean of the Donald Bren School of Law at the University of California, Irvine, officials announced.

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Chemerinsky’s original hiring at U.C. Irvine caused a national stir among conservatives and several prominent Californians who complained about his liberal views. Chemerinsky, for one, was instrumental in helping tear down a prominent California ballot initiative, Proposition 209, which would have repealed affirmative action programs in the state.

In the most recent dust-up, the Los Angeles Times reported, California Chief Justice Ronald M. George criticized Chemerinsky’s grasp of death penalty appeals in a recent opinion piece. (George has been a prominent advocate for death penalty appeals reforms.) And a group of Orange County Republicans and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich worked to derail the appointment as well, the newspaper said.

Nevertheless, some called for the resignation of Chancellor Michael V. Drake after Chemerinsky was fired. It was an issue of academic freedom. The controversy threatened to mar the opening of the new law school - which is being inaugurated through a $20 million donation from real estate magnate Donald Bren.

So Chemerinsky has been invited back. Drake, who traveled to North Carolina to meet with Chemerinsky last week, said in a statement: “Our new law school will be founded on the bedrock principle of academic freedom. The chancellor reiterated his lifelong, unqualified commitment to academic freedom, which extends to every faculty member, including deans and other senior administrators.”

Elizabeth Loftus - a UC Irvine professor and member of the search committee that recommended Chemerinsky - told KPCC radio in Los Angeles that Chemerinsky’s firing “shook” the campus. Drake called the staff together last week to tell them he had changed his mind. “But I will tell you it was a number of people sitting around a table in the chancellor’s office, all looking very glum,” Loftus told KPCC.

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