Chemerinsky and Academic Freedom

Professor Erwin Chemerinsky is a favorite of Air America Radio talk show host Jon Elliott -- with good reason -- and this issue was just discussed with Marjorie Cohn on Jon's show. I am grateful she is continuing to discuss this chilling atrocity, this assault on academic freedom. More people have to be made aware and to join in speaking out: Chancellor Michael Drake should immediately reinstate Professor Erwin Chemerinsky as dean of the UC Irvine Law School. Please read Professor Cohn's article at CommonDreams.org:

Erwin Chemerinsky and the Post-9/11 Attack on Academic Freedom
by Marjorie Cohn

One week after renowned legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky was offered the position of dean of the new law school at the University of California at Irvine, Chancellor Michael Drake withdrew the offer, informing Duke Law Professor Chemerinsky he had proved to be “too politically controversial.” Chemerinsky is one of the most eminent law teachers and constitutional law scholars in the country. Author of a leading treatise on constitutional law, he has written four books and more than 100 law review articles. In 2005, he was named by Legal Affairs as one of “the top 20 legal thinkers in America.”

This is the latest chapter in the post September 11 attack on academic freedom under the guise of protecting security. Two weeks after 9/11, former White House spokeman Ari Fleischer cautioned Americans “they need to watch what they say, watch what they do.” The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a group founded by Lynne Cheney and Senator Joe Lieberman, accused universities of being the weak link in the war on terror; it included the names of 117 “un-American” professors, students and staff members. A few months later, a blacklisting Internet cite called Campus Watch was launched. It publishes dossiers on scholars who criticize U.S. Middle East policy and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. Earlier this year, the Bruin Alumni Association at UCLA offered students $100 to tape left-wing professors. MORE

For more on this issue, read The Volokh Conspiracy blog

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It is a gorgeous late summer/pre-autumn day in NYC. Joan Pagan and I plan to take a ride to Nyack to take part in Fellowship of Reconciliation's final day of their third annual Festival of Peace.

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne