BREAKING NEWS:

Erwin Chemerinsky, the liberal law professor from Duke University, has been rehired as the founding dean of UC Irvine’s law school, school officials announced Monday.

“We resolved to put recent events behind us and immediately begin to focus on our shared vision of creating a law school dedicated to providing the best education for future lawyers, to producing the finest legal scholarship, and to helping to address the legal needs of Orange County and the nation,” said UCI Chancellor Michael Drake and Chemerinsky in a joint statement. “The law school, like all great educational institutions, will be a place of great diversity, where differing viewpoints are nurtured, debated and cherished.”

Chemerinsky was hired on Sept. 7 and then fired four days later by Drake. A firestorm quickly erupted about whether the firing was politically motivated, leading to questions about academic freedom at UCI.

UCI’s law school is expected to open in 2009.