Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, last seen expressing “disappointment” in himself for failing to stop the politicization of the Justice Department honors program during the Bush era, has a new gig as the Doyle Rogers Distinguished Chair of Law at Belmont University College of Law in Tennessee.
In a press release Monday, Belmont announced the newly created and endowed position, which Gonzales will take on beginning January 2, 2012.
“The insight and experience Alberto Gonzales acquired while serving as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, Counsel to the President, Justice on the Supreme Court of Texas and Texas Secretary of State will be immeasurable resources for our students and faculty,” Founding Dean Jeff Kinsler said in a statement. “Since leaving public office, these qualities have helped Judge Gonzales develop into an outstanding professor.”
“I am honored to be named as the Doyle Rogers Distinguished Chair of Law, created in honor of an outstanding lawyer and extraordinary human being. I welcome the opportunity to be associated with the Belmont College of Law, and I look forward to working with an outstanding charter faculty to develop tomorrow’s leaders in the bar, the Nashville community and beyond,” said Gonzales.
In a deposition earlier this year, Gonzales accepted responsibility for the politicized hiring process for the DOJ’s honors program and its summer interns. “Obviously everyone is smarter in hindsight. In hindsight you wish you would do some things differently and … I feel disappointment in myself,” he said
Internal Justice Department reports on the program found that in 2002, for example, 80 out of 100 “liberals” that were nominated for the positions were “deselected” by the screening committee.
Gonzales resigned from the DOJ amid allegations that during the Bush Administration the department had fired U.S. Attorneys for politically motivated reasons. The DOJ closed its investigation in July 2010 without filing any charges.
