Erwin Chemerinsky, Distinguished Law Professor
and Constitutional Expert: Nov. 15

Law professor Erwin Chemerinsky, the founding dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law and a frequent commentator on legal issues for national and local media, will speak at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum at 6:45 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 15. His address, "The Constitution in the Headlines: Gay Marriage, Immigration, and Health Care Reform," is free and open to the public, with seating on a first-come basis.
Recognized as a leading scholar on the Constitution, civil rights, and civil liberties, his address on campus will delve into the role of competing claims to the Constitutiondebates about gay marriage, immigration policy, and health care reform policies enacted in the past few years.
Chemerinsky is the founding and current dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, where he is also a distinguished professor of law. Before his work at UCI, which opened its doors in fall 2009, he also taught at the law schools of Duke University, DePaul University, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his B.S. from Northwestern University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He frequently argues cases before the nation's highest courts, and also serves as a commentator on legal issues for national and local media. If he wasn't already a household name, Chemerinsky arguably became one as a frequent commentator for KCBS-TV, KNX-FM, and CBS News during the O.J. Simpson trial in 1995.
He has also written six books. His most recent, The Conservative Assault on the Constitution (published less than two months ago), discusses conservative attempts to overturn precedent in the Warren Courts in order to favor corporations and government power over individual citizens and consumers. His other books include Empowering Government: Federalism for the 21st Century (2008) and textbooks on the Constitution and on criminal procedure.