Wednesday, September 12, 2007
More on Firing of Erwin Chemerinsky, UC-Irvine's Inaugural Dean
Update on yesterday's post on the shocking firing of Erwin Chemerinsky less than a week after his hiring as the inaugural dean of the new UC-Irvine law school:
- Above the Law: Chemerinskygate: Dean for a Day?, by David Lat
- American Thinker: The Perfect Candidate, by Thomas Lifson
- Appellate Law & Practice: Chemerinsky Hired Then Fired for Political Reasons
- Associated Press: Legal Scholar's UC Deanship Withdrawn, by Gillian Flaccus
- Inside Higher Ed: Law School Deanship Rescinded; Politics Blamed, by Doug Lederman
- InstaPundit, by Glenn Reynolds:
- L.A. Times:
- Chemerinsky Says UC Irvine Rescinds Offer to Become Law School Dean," by Garrett Therolf & Henry Weinstein
- In Chemerinsky's Defense; No Matter What Your Politics, UC Irvine's Treatment of the Legal Scholar Was Wrong (op-ed), by Douglas W. Kmiec
- Politicized UC Regents? The Irvine Chancellor Claimed Fear of a Politically Bent Board of Regents in Unhiring Erwin Chemerinsky, But History Suggests It's Off-base (op-ed), by Amina Khan
- UC Irvine's Cowardice; Rescinding Erwin Chemerinsky's Job Offer as the School's Founding Law Dean Was an Act of Self-destructiveness (editorial)
- UC Irvine reverses field on Chemerinsky, by arrett Therolf & Henry Weinstein
- Minding the Campus: Reforming Our Universities: A Political Target, by John Leo
- MoneyLaw: Score: Chemerinsky 1; UC Irvine, Academic Freedom 0, by Nancy Rapoport
- National Law Journal: UC Irvine Drops Chemerinsky; Conservative Members of UC Board of Regents Opposed Chemerinsky's Liberal Politics, by Amanda Bronstad
- News & Observer: Prof Too Divisive for Deanship? UC-Irvine Withdraws its Offer to Duke's Chemerinsky, by Jane Stancill
- PrawfsBlawg: Could This be True???, by Sam Kamin
- PointofLaw.com, by Walter Olson
- ProfessorBainbridge.com, by Stephen Bainbridge:
- The Recorder: Calif. Law School Dumps Chemerinsky as Founding Dean, by Zusha Elinson
- Townhall.com, by Hugh Hewitt
- The Volokh Conspiracy:
- Incompetence, Cowardice, or Willful Self-Destruction?, by Stuart Benjamin
- Regents' Veto of Erwin Chemerinsky as Dean of the New UCI Law School, by Eugene Volokh
- Wall Street Journal Law Blog: The O.C. -- Law School Edition, by Amir Efrati
- WorkplaceProf Blog
- Chemerinsky Gets Fired After 1-Week Deanship, by Rick Bales
- The Chemerinsky "Firing" and First Amendment Retaliation, by Paul Secunda
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2007/09/more-on-firing-.html
Comments
Since he wasn't on the payroll yet, and in fact hadn't even been officially offered the position when he wrote the op-ed, how could it have conflicted with his "job" as dean? It would also be interesting to hear from other observers what is considered proper "behavior" for a law school dean.
Posted by: Jay Wiedwald | Sep 13, 2007 12:13:10 PM
I sympathize with Chemerinsky if the story is true, but conservatives are regularly punished for their views at American law schools and it seems to attract much less attention all around, perhaps for that reason.
Posted by: Michael Livingston | Sep 13, 2007 11:19:07 AM
Eugene Volok just posted an update at the Volokh Conspiracy that contrary to the original story that so many people jumped on, apparently the issue wasn’t that the regents or the donors objected to Erwin Chemerinsky but that when he was originally hired he was asked specifically to focus less on writing op ed pieces and more on developing legal education. You know the sort of thing that a dean at a law school is expected to do.
Chemerinsky apparently went back on the agreement by jumping into the death penalty case before he was even approved by the Regents and chancellor who offered the job, apparently without regard to the content of the op ed, saw this as a preview of things to come and rescinded the offer. If he couldn’t even control himself until he had the job for sure (which doesn’t happen until the Regents approve it), how could they expect him to start behaving when the job was secure?
Basically they knew he was a liberal law professor but didn’t care that he was a liberal. What they did care about was that he apparently didn’t realize that when you take on the additional responsibility of being a dean and serving as the public face of an institution rather than just a professor, you’re expected to carry yourself a certain way rather than freely jump into whatever cause strikes your fancy.
IMO this incident suggests that Erwin Chemerinsky may be a decent professor and a respected academic but that doesn’t mean he has the skills and temperament to serve as the leader of a law school.
Posted by: Thorley Winston | Sep 13, 2007 10:35:26 AM
My understanding is that Chemerinsky's op ed appeared the very day he was offered the dean's job. It was presumably written days before that offer, and published hours before it.
So how can having had that piece published be contrary to any agreements Chemerinsky may or may not have made?
Chemerinsky and Drake agree that that op ed criticizing Gonzales played a critical role in Drake's decision. Immediately before flying to Durham to deliver the bad news to Chemerinsky, Drake was in D.C.
Put two and two together. What did Drake do in D.C.? Who did he talk to?
Posted by: lysias | Sep 14, 2007 7:51:42 AM