Erwin Chemerinsky

Early life and education

Chemerinsky was born in 1953 in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in a working-class Jewish family in the South Side of Chicago and attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools for high school. He studied communications at Northwestern University, where he competed on the debate team. He graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude. Chemerinsky then attended Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. He graduated in 1978 with a Juris Doctor, cum laude.

Professional career

After law school, Chemerinsky worked as an honors attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1978 to 1979, then entered private practice at the Washington, D.C., law firm Dobrovir, Oakes & Gebhardt. In 1980, Chemerinsky was hired as an assistant professor of law at DePaul University College of Law. He moved to the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California (USC) in 1983. Chemerinsky taught at USC from 1983 to 2004, then joined the faculty of Duke University School of Law.

In 1995, Chemerinsky provided commentary on the O.J. Simpson trial for KCBS-TV, KNX, and CBS News. He assisted in drafting the Constitution of Belarus and was a founding member of the Progressive Jewish Alliance.He served on a panel within the Los Angeles Police Department, tasked with investigating the Rampart Scandal, and participated in a commission examining irregularities in city contracting processes. He played a role in drafting the Los Angeles city charter.

In 2008, Chemerinsky was named the inaugural dean of the newly established University of California, Irvine School of Law. In 2017, he became dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, where he is also the Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law.

Chemerinsky has authored sixteen books, including a constitutional law textbook, and over two hundred law review articles. He also writes a regular column for the Sacramento Bee and a monthly column for the ABA Journal and Los Angeles Daily Journal, and frequently pens op-eds for prominent newspapers across the country. Chemerinsky has also argued several cases at the United States Supreme Court, including United States v. Apel, Scheidler v. National Organization for Women. Lockyer v. Andrade and Van Orden v. Perry, and has written numerous amicus briefs.

In 2011, National Jurist magazine described Chemerinsky one of the "23 Law Profs to Take Before You Die".

He is the National Advisory Board Co-chair of the UC Free Speech Center. He was appointed to Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón's transition team in 2020. He was the President of the Association of American Law Schools for the term spanning 2021–2022.

Legal thought

Chemerinsky supports gun control and disagreed with the decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. He thinks that even if an individual's right to bear arms exists, the District of Columbia was justified in restricting that right because it believed that the law would lessen violence. George Will specifically mentioned and responded to Chemerinsky's argument in a column that ran four days later.

Chemerinsky believes that Roe v. Wade was correctly decided. He says, "Judicial activism is the label for the decision that people don't like." He also believed that gay marriage should be legal many years prior to the decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Chemerinsky also represents a client held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. He supports affirmative action. In January 2017, Chemerinsky, along with other high-profile lawyers, sued President Donald Trump for refusing to "divest from his businesses".

In an opinion piece following the 2020 presidential election, Chemerinsky wrote that "the Electoral College makes no sense as a way for a democracy to choose a president." He writes that it was intentionally designed to be anti-democratic and came about as part of "compromises concerning slavery that were at the core of the Constitution's drafting and ratification."

In a New York Times op-ed in August 2021, Chemerinsky argued that California's recall process is unconstitutional. This process called for a two-part ballot, with a yes-no question on whether to remove the governor from office, and then second question to select the candidate to replace the governor, with the governors name absent from that ballot. Chemerinsky argued that a governor receiving just below 50% support in the first question could be removed and replaced by a candidate receiving a much smaller plurality in the second question. This would replace a sitting governor with a candidate that received fewer votes than they did in the same election. Chemerinsky wrote, "[The court] could simply add Mr. Newsom’s name on the ballot to the list of those running to replace him. That simple change would treat his supporters equally to others and ensure that if he gets more votes than any other candidate, he will stay in office".

Freedom of speech

Main article: Irvine 11 controversy

In 2010, students who were protesting against UCI's invitation of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren interrupted his speech several times. Chemerinsky, referring to the heckler's veto, asserted that their protest was a form of punishable civil disobedience and not protected by the First Amendment. However, he also strongly criticized the prosecutors' decision to file criminal charges against the students.

In October 2023, more than 200 Berkeley Law alumni signed an open letter asking Chemerinsky, as dean, to address the harm done by a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Berkeley Law colleague Steven Davidoff Solomon titled "Don’t Hire My Anti-Semitic Law Students." The letter said that Solomon conflated "support for the Palestinian people or criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism." The alumni urged Chemerinsky to uphold freedom of speech for all students at Berkeley Law, including those that advocated for Palestinian rights, in the wake of threats to pro-Palestine student protestors' freedom of speech at the school. Chemerinsky responded to the Berkeley Law community that Solomon's op-ed was free speech, even if it included language that others found "deeply offensive", while also noting that Solomon expressed a personal opinion and did not speak for the law school. Chemerinsky also wrote a Los Angeles Times op-ed denouncing antisemitism on college campuses (including student protestors calling for the "total elimination of Israel"), describing antisemitic remarks directed at him personally, strongly opposing the policies of the Netanyahu government, supporting "full rights for Palestinians", and affirming free speech for students and school administrators alike. He called on fellow university administrators to denounce celebrations of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Some alumni criticized Chemerinsky's op-ed, saying it ignored anti-Palestinian racism faced by Berkeley Law students.

Controversies

Chemerinsky's hiring as dean of the UCI School of Law was controversial. After signing a contract on September 4, 2007, the hire was rescinded by UCI Chancellor Michael V. Drake, who felt the law professor's commentaries were "polarizing." Drake claimed the decision was his own and not the subject of any outside influence.

The action was criticized by both liberal and conservative scholars, who felt it hindered the academic mission of the law school and violated principles of academic freedom, and few believed Drake's claims that it was not the result of outside influence. The issue was the subject of an editorial in The New York Times on Friday, September 14. Details emerged revealing that the university had received criticism on the hire from the California Supreme Court's Chief Justice Ronald M. George, who criticized Chemerinsky's grasp of death penalty appeals and a group of prominent local Republicans, including Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who wanted to stop the appointment. Drake traveled over a weekend to meet with Chemerinsky in Durham, North Carolina, where he was a professor at the Duke University School of Law at the time, and the two reached an agreement late Sunday evening.

On September 17, Chemerinsky issued a joint press release with Drake indicating that Chemerinsky would head the law school. The release stated that the chancellor was "commit[ted] to academic freedom." On September 20, 2007, Chemerinsky's hire was formally approved by the Regents of the University of California.

On April 9, 2024, Chemerinsky's wife, law professor Catherine Fisk, was involved in a physical altercation with a Muslim law student during an invitation-only dinner for graduating law students held at the professors' home. When the student attempted to give a speech in protest of Israel's actions in Gaza, Fisk attempted to take the student's microphone. The student claimed that they had a First Amendment right to protest inside the professors' home, which was described as a wrongful interpretation of the First Amendment by the professors and multiple legal experts. According to Chemerinsky, the First Amendment did not include the right to protest inside of others' private homes. After the student accused Fisk of discrimination and harassment, UC Berkeley opened a civil rights investigation into the incident.

Personal life

Chemerinsky was first married to Marcy Strauss, a professor at Loyola Law School. They had two sons, Jeffrey and Adam, before divorcing in 1992.

Chemerinsky later married Catherine Fisk, the Barbara Nachtrieb Armstrong Professor of Law at UC Berkeley School of Law. They have a son, Alex, and a daughter, Mara.

Selected works

Books

• — (1989). Federal Jurisdiction. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
  • 2nd edition (1994); 3rd edition (1999); 4th edition (2003), Aspen Publishers; 5th edition (2007); 6th edition (2012), Wolters Kluwer; 7th edition (2016); 8th edition (2020).
• — (1997). Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies. New York: Aspen Law and Business.
  • 2nd edition (2002); 3rd edition (2006); 4th edition (2011); 5th edition (2015), Wolters Kluwer; 6th edition (2019) *; 7th edition (2023).
• — (2005). Constitutional Law (2nd edition). New York: Aspen Publishers;
  • 3rd edition (2009); 4th edition (2013); 5th edition (2017).
• — (2014). The Case Against the Supreme Court. New York: Viking; (2015), New York: Penguin Books.
• — (2018). We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century. New York: Picador. .
• — (2022). Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism. Yale University Press.

Articles

References

Citations

Sources

References

1. Sernoffsky, Evan. (May 17, 2017). "Erwin Chemerinsky named dean of Berkeley Law". [[Hearst Newspapers]].
2. Haire, Chris. (May 17, 2017). "UC Irvine law dean Erwin Chemerinsky named dean of Berkeley's law school, will begin July 1". [[Digital First Media]].
3. [https://www.acslaw.org/person/erwin-chemerinsky/#:~:text=Chemerinsky%20was%20named%20a%20fellow,cum%20laude%20and%20his%20B.S. ACS-American Constitution Society].
4. Bivins, Larry. (January 2018). "Franken hits 6-month mark". [[Gannett]].
5. (May 27, 2009). "A Path to Greatness".
6. (December 21, 2022). "At Berkeley Law, a Debate Over Zionism, Free Speech and Campus Ideals". The New York Times.
7. (2017). "Leadership in Law Schools". Stanford Law Review.
8. Zint, Bradley. (May 17, 2017). "UCI law school's Chemerinsky takes new position at UC Berkeley". Los Angeles Times.
9. (9 November 2022). "Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky Makes the Case Against Originalism". The District of Columbia Bar.
10. (June 4, 2021). "COVID-19 and the Courts: Lessons from the Pandemic". RAND Corporation.
11. (March 2011). "23 Law Profs to Take Before You Die". The National Jurist.
12. (January 4, 2023). "Chemerinsky Reviews Past Year as AALS President". [[ALM Global]], LLC.
13. Chemerinsky, Erwin. (March 14, 2007). "A Well-Regulated Right to Bear Arms". The Washington Post.
14. Will, George F.. (March 18, 2007). "Gun control issue back on the table". [[Lee Enterprises]].
15. Wajahat Ali. (September 18, 2008). "Judicial Activism: Playing with the Constitution. An Interview with Constitutional Law Scholar Erwin Chemerinsky on Abortion, the 2nd Amendment, the War on Terror and Guantanamo Bay". [[FindLaw.com]].
16. Rhodan, Maya. "What to Know About the Ethics Lawsuit Facing President Trump".
17. Chemerinsky, Erwin. (November 11, 2020). "Presidential elections and Senate seats underscore fact that this is not a democracy". [[McClatchy]].
18. Chemerinsky, Erwin. (August 11, 2021). "There Is a Problem With California's Recall. It's Unconstitutional". New York Times.
19. Santa Cruz, Nicole. (September 23, 2011). "'Irvine 11': UC Irvine law school dean calls convictions 'harsh'". [[Los Angeles Times]].
20. Truong, Debbie. (2023-11-03). "A divide over the Israel-Hamas war flares at UC Berkeley Law". [[Los Angeles Times]].
21. Chemerinsky, Erwin. (2023-10-29). "Nothing has prepared me for the antisemitism I see on college campuses now". [[Los Angeles Times]].
22. (September 13, 2007). "UC Irvine post is taken from liberal legal scholar – Criticism follows the dismissal of Erwin Chemerinsky as dean. The chancellor says the decision wasn't forced". Los Angeles Times.
23. Parsons, Dana. (September 13, 2007). "Excuse for UCI's fumble on law school dean not good enough". Los Angeles Times.
24. . (September 14, 2007). ["A Bad Beginning in Irvine"](https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/opinion/14fri3.html). *The New York Times*.
25. Therolf, Garrett. (September 17, 2007). "Chemerinsky returns to UC Irvine post". [[Los Angeles Times]].
26. "Joint Statement re Donald Bren School of Law". University of California, Irvine.
27. (September 20, 2007). "Erwin Chemerinsky named founding dean of UC Irvine's Donald Bren School of Law". University of California, Irvine.
28. Regimbal, Alec. (April 15, 2024). "UC Berkeley law professor physically confronts law student at backyard dinner". [[Santa Rosa Press Democrat]].
29. Koh Ewe. (April 12, 2024). "Berkeley Law Student Protests at Dean's House: How Experts and Advocates Are Reacting".
30. Volokh, Eugene. (April 11, 2024). "Students Don't Have a Right to Use Public University Social Events for Their Own Political Orations".
31. Chemerinsky, Erwin. (April 26, 2024). "No One Has a Right to Protest in My Home".
32. (September 1, 2024). "Erwin Chemerinsky on the need for a new US constitution: 'Our democracy is at grave risk'". [[The Guardian]].
33. Lozano, Alicia Victoria. (2024-05-03). "UC Berkeley opens civil rights investigation into backyard confrontation between a law professor and a student". NBCUniversal Media.
34. Boyer, Edward J.. (March 6, 2001). "Professor Erwin Chemerinsky Is an Authority in Demand". Los Angeles Times.
35. (March 5, 2004). "Erwin Chemerinsky and Catherine Fisk join the Faculty of Duke Law School".
36. "BerkeleyLaw Profile, Catherine Fisk".