IRVINE — The University of California, Irvine today announced the availability of an interview with Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Irvine School of Law founding dean, discussing his provocative new book, "The Conservative Assault on the Constitution," in a video interview with Evan Lee, UC Hastings College of the Law professor and associate dean for research. This interview is part of the Legally Speaking series, co-sponsored by the UC Hastings College of the Law and California Lawyer magazine.
With the book recently released, the video interview showcases Chemerinsky and Lee discussing constitutional topics and social issues presented in the book. The interview is now available and accessible only through UC Irvine's OpenCourseWare (OCW) website for free.
"Ever since Richard Nixon ran for president in 1968, conservatives have sought to dramatically change constitutional law," explained Chemerinsky. "The thesis of this book is that in almost every area, they succeeded."
During the interview, Chemerinsky explains how key decisions on important subjects such as church-state relations, school integration, access to the courts and executive power during recent decades have been ideologically motivated and have denied justice to millions of American citizens. Chemerinsky provides clarity and wisdom on the political, social, and personal implications of the Supreme Court's major cases over the past four decades and identifies the core elements of what he calls the conservative assault on the Constitution. Having argued and defended constitutional principles before federal appellate courts and the Supreme Court itself, Chemerinsky has personal experience to show how constitutional freedoms afforded to American citizens have been chipped away.
"As the new Supreme Court term begins and a new justice joins the court, the discussion between Lee and Chemerinsky provides a valuable context for understanding the decisions the justices will be facing in the coming year," says Gary W. Matkin, dean of Continuing Education, Distance Learning and Summer Session at UC Irvine. "This OCW offering allows people that are interested in the topic all over the world to have instant access to the insights captured in Chemerinsky's book."
Chemerinsky is the founding dean and distinguished professor of law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. Previously, he taught at Duke Law School and at the University of Southern California School of Law, and served for four years as director of the Center for Communications Law and Policy. A graduate of Northwestern University and Harvard Law School, he has authored six previous books and nearly 200 law-review articles.
The Conservative Assault on the Constitution is now available nationwide and is sold for $27.00. The interview is now available only on UC Irvine's OCW at http://ocw.uci.edu/lectures/lecture.aspx?id=401.
For more information, please visit http://ocw.uci.edu/.
About the UC Irvine School of Law: UC Irvine seeks to create the ideal law school for the 21st century by doing the best job of training lawyers for the practice of law at the highest levels of the profession. Recruited from prestigious schools, the law faculty was ranked 9th in the country in a recent study of scholarly impact. The first two classes at UCI Law, which opened in August 2009, have median grades and LSAT scores comparable to those of classes at top 20 law schools. The school's innovative curriculum stresses experiential learning, interdisciplinary study and public service.
About UC Irvine's OpenCourseWare Initiative: The University of California, Irvine was the first University of California campus-and West Coast University-to join the OCW Consortium. UC Irvine's membership in the OCW Consortium is consistent with its public- and land-grant missions and its desire to play a significant role in contributing to the social welfare of the state, the nation and the world. Open educational resources (OER) showcase the University's high quality education and makes courses and course materials free for everyone in the world. UC Irvine's OCW is a large-scale, Web-based resource that houses educational assets that are discoverable, searchable, modifiable, and, best of all, free and easily available. Through the OCW Movement, UC Irvine provides university-quality courses and learning assets to populations of self learners that are underserved and in many cases, unable to participate in formal education at a university. This site also offers access to UC Irvine's online continuing education offerings. For its leadership of the OCW movement, University of California, Irvine has been identified as one of the top 10 providers of free online courses. The ranking, published by Education-Portal.com, recognized UC Irvine for providing high-quality, university-level courses, free of charge, to learners around the globe. For more information about UC Irvine's OCW initiative, visit http://ocw.uci.edu/ or e-mail ocw@unx.uci.edu .
About the University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,400 faculty members. The second-largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3.3 billion. For more UCI news, visit www.today.uci.edu .