UC-Irvine dumps 'controversial' dean

IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Duke professor Erwin Chemerinsky, just hired to lead University of California-Irvine’s new law school, says he’s been told the deal is off due to politics.

Chemerinsky, a nationally recognized expert on constitutional law, signed a contract last week to become the first dean of the new law school in Southern California. However, the law professor told the Los Angeles Times, UC-Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake flew to North Carolina Tuesday to inform him the appointment was withdrawn because he is too "politically controversial."

Chemerinsky said Drake told him there was concern there would be a “bloody battle” over his appointment when it came up for approval by UC regents. He said Drake told him he had not realized the extent to which there were "conservatives out to get me."

“We live in strange times,“ said Chemerinsky, who taught at University of Southern California Law School for 21 years before joining the Duke faculty in 2004.

John Eastman, a conservative constitutional scholar and dean of Chapman University Law School in Orange, told the newspaper the revocation of the offer to Chemerinsky was "a serious misstep."

Chemerinsky was named one of "the top 20 legal thinkers in America" by Legal Affairs magazine in 2005.