UCI Goofs...Sort of

The nearby University of California at Irvine (UCI) has egg on its face today after they hired and fired the head of their new law school in less than a week (analysis from Hugh Hewitt):

The University of California, Irvine is starting a new law school. Given its location and the resources available to it, it could have quickly entered the first ranks of American law schools. It had selected my friend and regular radio guest Duke University Law School Professor Erwin Chemerinsky as the school's new dean. Erwin is a man of the left, of course, but a remarkably distinguished and accomplished scholar who enjoys the esteem of professors, jurists and practioners across the ideological spectrum.

UCI, for reasons not yet fully disclosed, has now dumped Erwin. Brian Leiter has the details, as does The Los Angeles Times.

This is an astonishing and disgraceful episode, which, if perpetrated against a conservative, would rightly lead to a massive outpouring of outrage directed at the university that had allowed such a purge to occur. I will be astonished if any reputable scholar agrees to take the job over Erwin's broken contract, and many professors who would otherwise have welcomed the chance to join the UC system will be wondering about the Administration of such a place, even if they find someone to agree to be dean.

UCI should regrow its spine and renew its offer to Erwin. The good news is that he is probably gracious enough to accept it in the best interests of the young institution.

First of all, I agree with Hugh that Erwin got a raw deal here. Hugh is quite upset because Erwin is a friend of his and a regular contributor to the "Smart Guys" weekly segment on his show. However, even Hugh will admit that Erwin is as partisan a lefty as they come and is wrong on just about everything.

UCI should have known what they were getting when they made the job offer. It's not as though Erwin is an unknown commodity. He's been a feature of lefty litigation for years, most recently supporting Valerie Plame in her efforts to sue President Bush and Dick Cheney. What I don't know is if Erwin would be a good law school administrator capable of keeping his way lefty opinions out of the classroom and the minds of young wannabe lawyers.

I've heard Erwin espouse many crazy ideas on Hugh's show, but to me that craziest and the thing that would make me vary wary of having someone learn from him came from the 2000 election debacle in Florida. While discussing the butterfly ballot confusion in Palm Beach County Erwin stated that he thought it perfectly appropriate to hold a new election in that one county, which would have given the relatively few citizens of Palm Beach the right to choose our president. It was craziness and I remember his "Smart Guys" debate partner John Eastman was appalled at the idea, as was I.

I think Patterico sums it up pretty well:

Chemerinsky: Gravely Wronged by the University of California . . . But Still a Shameless Partisan Hack Who Gets It Wrong All The Time

UCI did him wrong, but I think they ultimately got the decision right.