I can understand why the Neocons would want to free up the position.  After all, they need some place to send all the ethically challenged, scandal ridden, subpoena ducking, political zealots and outright hacks who are being canned or forced to resign from the Justice Department and White Legal Counsel staff. 

Except for running for office or becoming a corrupt lobbyist, where else can such Republicans with a law degree go to earn a living?  No one who wants an honest and moral employee would voluntarily hire the Bush lawyers who routinely did things like write memos saying torture was okay and searching without warrants is legal.  On a daily basis, these guys violated their oath of office to “defend the Constitution.”  Apparently, when they took their oaths they quietly substituted the words “Republican Party” for the word “Constitution.”

This isn’t an issue of academic freedom. Only tenured professors have academic freedom or immunity from termination except for the most egregious reasons, like plagiarism. UCI just hired Chemerinsky. They had the right to fire him for the next five to seven years depending on the length of his tenure process. Many professors get denied tenure and get fired. Please get your issues straight. If Chemerinsky’s hiring would reduce donations or cause divisiveness then he needed to go. The UCI law school isn’t about Chemerinsky. I’m personally unimpressed with the way Chemerinsky handled the issue by accussing the Chancellor Drake of being pressured. Erwin simply need to look in the mirror to find the cause. He made himself a lightning rod throughout his career, now he has to live with that.

Dear Todd,

You seem to fail to recognize that Prof. Chemerinsky isn’t a “whack-job” like Ward Churchill. Chemerinsky is a thoughtful, soft-spoken, prudent voice arguing for a return to Constitutional governance. Oh yeah: we’ve never had that; we’ve always been subject to gross Constitutional violators—I can only conclude that that’s your preferred poison. How can we ever hope to aspire to Constitutional governance without voices like Chemerinsky standing-up in favor thereof? But even more disturbedly, why’s the “right” so opposed to people speaking-out freely in support of OUR Constitution? (I didn’t realize that arguing in favor of Constitutional governance was a “leftist” thing until now.)

The fact that you compare Chemerinsky to Churchill calls into question your qualifications for “whack-job”. In a world of ‘it takes one to tell one’, I hope it surprises no one that it’s so easy for you to identify “nut-jobs”. Who better to act as prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner of sentence than you?

This is disgustingly cowardly. The chancellor should resign.

Oh, by the way—this from the UCI website:
  Drake’s office phone:(949) 824-5111  
      email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Todd a previous commenter with his succinct and so well written comment typifies the need for liberal professors in the Universities.I am sure he was taught by consevative teachers and his lack of critical thinking is obvious.No liberal would ever defend the firing of a conservative professor for purely political reasons.When you cannot win the debate the next best thing is to eliminate the competition.

Chemerinsky helped draft the new constitution for a former Soviet Republic. He was instrumental in the drafting of the new LA city Charter. He was a finalist for the position of Dean at Duke and declined a similiar position at UNC. He is considered one of the leading scholars in his field.

I doubt if Donald Bren is too pleased. He contributed $20 million to the new school and can’t be pleased with this negative publicity. Story going around is that Mike Antonovich, a LA County Supervisor and right wing nut contacted some GOP biggies and said they had to oppose this. Without telling anyone Drake capitualted. He has no supporters. The TIMES blasted him as did Doug Kmeic of Pepperdine and John Eastman of Chapman. Even Hugh Hewitt thought it wrongheaded.

Sorry Todd this is not Ward Churchill or even Norman Finklestein. Chemerinsky would have given UCI instant credibility. Now its another in a series of black eyes the place has endured - see the Med school.

I bet Drake won’t survive this. And who will they get to take the position now? Certainly no one of any stature.83bui

Are you nutjobs for real????  For every instance in which a leftie gets the boot at a college or university (and this is the first I’ve ever seen), there a literally thousands of looney moonbat leftists pushing their political agenda over scholarly pursuits.

Even someone as crazy as Ward Churchill, who has been proven to be an outright liar, “had committed multiple counts of academic misconduct, specifically plagiarism, fabrication, and falsification” by the Report of the Investigative Committee of the Standing Committee on Research Misconduct at the University of Colorado at Boulder concerning Allegations of Academic Misconduct against Professor Ward Churchill, was still kept on the job for 10 years.  Oh yeah, he’s not an Cherokee either.

Crap like this is so permeated in today’s academia that its no wonder lunatics like the posters on this site exist in such numbers.

I am not surprised by this so why should anyone else be? Corporations, neo-cons, and fascists rule the entire US system now. So what are YOU going to do about it, Americans?

Universities are just as corrupt and in the pockets of the right wing corporate elite as rest of the institutions. The Chancellor of the university should be fired for basing his decisions decisions on coporate donations rather than the merit of the appointment.