The Wash Post picks up the Chemerinsky story this morning. It’s impressive to see the number of conservatives who are rushing to this guy’s defense:

“Even though I agree with him on only about one out of 100 issues, I believe he is one of the top legal minds in the United States,” said Hugh Hewitt, a law professor at Chapman University and host of a daily radio talk show. “This is clearly a boneheaded move, and how do you resurrect a situation like this?”
Douglas W. Kmiec, a conservative Constitutional scholar and law professor at Pepperdine University who has often debated Chemerinsky called him “a gentle soul, a splendid scholar and a person with a fine legal mind. . . . And I say this as someone who generally disagrees with where his mind is coming from.” Kmiec wrote in a Los Angeles Times editorial on Thursday that the withdrawal of the job offer “is a betrayal of everything a great institution like the University of California represents.”

Here’s the Kmiec op-ed from yesterday’s LAT:

Erwin and I seldom agree on constitutional outcome. I’m conservative, and he’s liberal. We have written competing textbooks. We have debated frequently in the media. Before the U.S. Supreme Court, if Erwin is for the petitioner, it’s a good bet I can find merit in the cause of the respondent.
Yet there is no person I would sooner trust to be a guardian of my constitutional liberty. Nor is there anyone I would sooner turn to for a candid, intellectually honest appraisal of an academic proposal. When students have difficulty grasping basic concepts, I do not hesitate to hold out his treatise on the Constitution as one that handles matters thoroughly and dispassionately. Across the nation, federal and state judges turn to Erwin each year to give them an update on the changes in the law and the legal directions of the Supreme Court.