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.

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one, was instrumental in helping tear down a prominent California ballot initiative, Proposition 209, which would have repealed affirmative action programs in the state.