In Abrupt Reversal, Erwin Chemerinsky to Become Law Dean at UC-Irvine

The University of California at Irvine is hiring Erwin Chemerinsky as its law dean after all. In a news conference that is still going on, the university’s chancellor, Michael V. Drake, is announcing that Mr. Chemerinsky, a professor at Duke University, will become the law school’s inaugural dean, less than a week after Dr. Drake drew an avalanche of criticism for at first offering Mr. Chemerinsky the job, then withdrawing the offer because he was “too politically controversial” — which many critics viewed as code words for “too liberal.”

Since word of the hiring controversy broke last Wednesday, Irvine has had to deal with questions about whether conservative activists or the chief donor for the new law school had tried to sink the appointment. Critics wondered if any high-caliber candidate would want the job if it had been tarnished by what they characterized as an attack on academic freedom. The episode played into the image of Orange County, Calif., where Irvine is located, as a bastion of conservativism that is every bit as politically correct as, say, a liberal bastion near Boston.

Over the weekend, as the university responded to the public-relations fiasco, rumors circulated that Irvine was rethinking the decision to withdraw the hire.

In a joint statement issued by Dr. Drake and Mr. Chemerinsky before the press conference, they said the appointment, which still faces approval by the University of California’s Board of Regents, had been founded on the “bedrock principle of academic freedom.” They also vowed to “put recent events behind us.” —Andrew Mytelka