Kudos to Hugh Hewitt and Douglas Kmiec, who criticized Michael Drake’s decision to "un-hire" Erwin Chemerinsky.
"Even though I agree with him on only about one out of 100 issues, Ibelieve he is one of the top legal minds in the United States," saidHugh Hewitt, a law professor at Chapman University and host of a dailyradio talk show. "This is clearly a boneheaded move, and how do youresurrect a situation like this?"
Douglas W. Kmiec, a conservative Constitutional scholar and law professor at Pepperdine Universitywho has often debated Chemerinsky called him "a gentle soul, a splendidscholar and a person with a fine legal mind. . . . And I say this assomeone who generally disagrees with where his mind is coming from."Kmiec wrote in a Los Angeles Times editorial on Thursday that thewithdrawal of the job offer "is a betrayal of everything a greatinstitution like the University of California represents."
Meanwhile, Drake is still searching for a legitimate reason to explain why he fired Chemerinsky.
My decision — and the motivation for it — have been the subject ofextensive media coverage over the last few days, much of which has beencharacterized by assumption, conjecture and hearsay.
Let meset the record straight. I made a management decision — not anideological or political one — to rescind the offer to ProfessorChemerinsky. The decision was mine and mine alone. It was not based onpressure from donors, politicians or the University of California Boardof Regents. It was a culmination of discussions — with many peopleover a period of time — that convinced me that Professor Chemerinskyand I would not be able to partner effectively to build a world-classlaw school at UC Irvine. That is my overarching priority.
It appears that Drake didn’t realize that Chemerinsky might go to the press with the comments Drake made in un-hiring him.
Chemerinsky said Drake told him during a meeting Tuesday at the Sheraton Hotel near the Raleigh-Durham airport that "concerns" had emerged from the University of California Regents, which would have had to approve the appointment. The professor said Drake told him that he thought there would have been a "bloody battle" over the appointment.