Erwin Chemerinsky

Mark Robinson Jr., a prominent Newport Beach attorney and UC Irvine law dean search committee member, has donated $1 million to the university?s law school, UCI officials announced Wednesday. ?I think having a UC law school in Orange County is terrific for our community,? Robinson said. ?I don?t know if the average person in Orange County understands that. I think having that level of a law school in this county will upgrade the county?s connection to the law. It?ll be a place for the public, the students, the lawyers and the judges to congregate and be a part of the law.?

Now that Erwin Chemerinsky has put the whirlwind of controversy surrounding his hiring, firing and then rehiring behind him, the reputable legal scholar said he plans to ensure UCI law students gain the practical experience they need. “I think that we can do a better job of training lawyers than law schools traditionally have,” Chemerinsky said Tuesday. Until the past week, Chemerinsky probably wasn’t a household name in Orange County. That changed when UCI Chancellor Michael Drake rescinded a job offer to the Duke University law professor only days after he accepted it. Drake announced on Monday he had changed his mind and rehired Chemerinsky.

Details are scant on how UC Irvine officials will proceed in their search for a dean for its new law school following Chancellor Michael Drake’s decision to rescind an offer to prominent constitutional lawyer Erwin Chemerinsky. Chemerinsky, a well-known law and political science professor at Duke University, was offered the founding dean position on Aug. 16 and signed a job offer agreement on Sept. 7. Four days later, Drake rescinded the offer in person in North Carolina.

Bowing to pressure from conservatives in the UC Irvine community, university officials rescinded an offer to one of the country’s best-known constitutional law experts to be the first dean of UCI’s Donald Bren School of Law. Erwin Chemerinsky accepted the university’s job offer on Friday, but as news spread through the UCI community opposition grew, university officials said. On Tuesday, UCI Chancellor Michael V. Drake flew to Duke University, where Chemerinsky has taught law since 2004, to tell him the university would withdraw the job offer.

 "Civil journalism should be Pilot’s responsibility," write Robert and Barbara Shelton ("Democracy can’t be forced on Mideast countries," Sept. 19). "Something’s badly amiss at the Daily Pilot when you headline a spiteful, personal attack on columnist Joseph Bell by Tom Williams." So what else is new? The Pilot has consistently turned a blind eye to Williams’ rhetorical tantrums since at least 1999. On Dec. 16 of that year, it devoted 479 words and 12 column inches to a Williams’ letter which began as follows: "I thought Geraldo Rivera was the all-time, world champion Bill Clinton ‘behind-kisser.

Public outcry over UC Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake’s decision to dismiss Erwin Chemerinsky four days after he was hired to be the university’s new law school dean continues to grow, with some faculty beginning to speculate his time as chancellor may soon be up. “I just don’t know if Drake can stand the [firestorm],” said Richard McKenzie, an economics and management professor at UCI. “I bet two days ago that he wouldn’t last a week.” McKenzie said the hiring, firing, and what he considers unclear explanations were bad on Drake’s part.

The recent Erwin Chemerinsky hiring, firing and rehiring as UC Irvine law school dean has not escaped the attention of new and returning students, many said during the first day of classes Thursday. “I’m a little surprised they say [Chancellor Michael Drake] was influenced by outside sources,” said sophomore Catherine Drake, who is not related to the chancellor. “You see that more in high government. I wouldn’t expect it at a university.” Chemerinsky, a prominent attorney and law professor at Duke University, was hired as UCI’s founding dean of the law school, set to open in 2009.

The decision to rehire uber-liberal lawyer Erwin Chemerinsky as founding dean of UC Irvine’s new law school by Chancellor Michael Drake was a mistake of historic proportion. I am not here to criticize Drake or to even try to understand the labyrinth of three-level chess he has to play to navigate in the largest publicly funded university system in the world. But this decision will set UCI’s law school on the road to becoming one of the most liberal law schools in the nation.

Robert Kobzi’s students are learning two things simultaneously in their fifth-grade classroom at Arroyo Elementary School: parts of speech, and freedom of speech. Kobzi, who teaches mostly English-learner students at the school in Pomona, leads his class through a unit in constitutional law every year. When he gave a presentation Saturday in UCI’s educational conference on the 1st Amendment, he pinned some samples of his students’ work on the classroom wall — including a poster from three girls who wrote, “It’s important to know our purposes because if we didn’t know them the governor would take advantage of us.” “They got an A,” Kobzi told the group of fellow educators who had come to learn new tactics for working civil liberties into the classroom.

A leading Los Angeles Jewish rights organization on Tuesday came out in support of the Orange County district attorney's decision to file criminal charges against 11 students who interrupted a speech by the Israeli ambassador to the United States. In a statement on its website, the Simon Wiesenthal Center commended District Atty. Tony Rackauckas, who charged the so-called "Irvine 11" with two misdemeanor counts each of planning to and disrupting a public meeting or lawful assembly.

Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor?s call last week to find stricter ways to crack down on illegal immigrants in the city may be too limited in the eyes of the law, one of the nation?s top constitutional lawyers said Friday. Before enforcing any laws, they would have to be within Costa Mesa?s purview. ?Generally, cities and states can?t enforce federal immigration laws,? said Erwin Chemerinsky, founding dean of the UC Irvine School of Law. ?Only federal law can do that, and Arizona will test that.

Robert Kobzi’s students are learning two things simultaneously in their fifth-grade classroom at Arroyo Elementary School: parts of speech, and freedom of speech. Kobzi, who teaches mostly English-learner students at the school in Pomona, leads his class through a unit in constitutional law every year. When he gave a presentation Saturday in UCI’s educational conference on the 1st Amendment, he pinned some samples of his students’ work on the classroom wall — including a poster from three girls who wrote, “It’s important to know our purposes because if we didn’t know them the governor would take advantage of us.” “They got an A,” Kobzi told the group of fellow educators who had come to learn new tactics for working civil liberties into the classroom.

UCI’s faculty is satisfied with Chancellor Michael Drake’s explanation for why he fired, hired and rehired the law school’s founding dean, but now they want to turn their focus to making sure they are kept in the loop the next time the chancellor hires a dean. The highly charged hiring of Erwin Chemerinsky in September brought to light inconsistencies in the university’s policy regarding communication between the chancellor and faculty when hiring deans.

Mark Robinson Jr., a prominent Newport Beach attorney and UC Irvine law dean search committee member, has donated $1 million to the university?s law school, UCI officials announced Wednesday. ?I think having a UC law school in Orange County is terrific for our community,? Robinson said. ?I don?t know if the average person in Orange County understands that. I think having that level of a law school in this county will upgrade the county?s connection to the law. It?ll be a place for the public, the students, the lawyers and the judges to congregate and be a part of the law.?

In response to Jim Righeimer’s column (“UCI’s rehiring ensures liberal slant,” Sept. 29), I must counter his claim that “liberals” like Chemerinsky “believe that the Constitution has to be reinterpreted as time goes on.” If anything, “liberals” have been fighting to restore many basic rights, guaranteed under the Constitution. The abolition of habeas corpus, the wiretapping of United States citizens without a warrant and many other abuses of power have shredded the very fabric of our democracy.

The decision to rehire uber-liberal lawyer Erwin Chemerinsky as founding dean of UC Irvine’s new law school by Chancellor Michael Drake was a mistake of historic proportion. I am not here to criticize Drake or to even try to understand the labyrinth of three-level chess he has to play to navigate in the largest publicly funded university system in the world. But this decision will set UCI’s law school on the road to becoming one of the most liberal law schools in the nation.

The recent Erwin Chemerinsky hiring, firing and rehiring as UC Irvine law school dean has not escaped the attention of new and returning students, many said during the first day of classes Thursday. “I’m a little surprised they say [Chancellor Michael Drake] was influenced by outside sources,” said sophomore Catherine Drake, who is not related to the chancellor. “You see that more in high government. I wouldn’t expect it at a university.” Chemerinsky, a prominent attorney and law professor at Duke University, was hired as UCI’s founding dean of the law school, set to open in 2009.

 "Civil journalism should be Pilot’s responsibility," write Robert and Barbara Shelton ("Democracy can’t be forced on Mideast countries," Sept. 19). "Something’s badly amiss at the Daily Pilot when you headline a spiteful, personal attack on columnist Joseph Bell by Tom Williams." So what else is new? The Pilot has consistently turned a blind eye to Williams’ rhetorical tantrums since at least 1999. On Dec. 16 of that year, it devoted 479 words and 12 column inches to a Williams’ letter which began as follows: "I thought Geraldo Rivera was the all-time, world champion Bill Clinton ‘behind-kisser.