Peltason Gives ‘Swan-Song’ Lecture at UCI

IRVINE — The U.S. Constitution, politics and the federal judiciary can be deadly lecture material, guaranteed to put all but the most dedicated students to sleep. But in the hands of constitutional scholar Jack Peltason, these are delivered with the kind of horse sense for which the UC Irvine chancellor has become famous.

Take the current public distaste for politicians:

“When I hear people say a politician is just doing something for the votes, well that’s about as profound as saying a businessman is just in it for the money,” Peltason told 40 UCI students Monday in a rare lecture, his last before leaving UCI this fall to head the nine-campus University of California system.

“You don’t think the guy who sells shoes is in it because he’s worried about your feet getting cold, do you?” No, it’s the nature of politics in the U.S. system of democracy, he said, adding: “In our usual fumbling way, I think we may have the best approach.”

Peltason, who ambled into the classroom minutes before his 9 a.m. lecture, clearly relishes these few exchanges with students. It’s a chance, he says, to get back to his scholarly roots and away from dreaded problems of finance and budget, typical fare for a chancellor of a major university.

Things will be even tougher come Oct. 1, when he takes over as president of the UC system. There, he’ll be grappling with anticipated cuts of at least 12% to 18% in the $2.1 billion originally proposed by the governor for the UC system. Since the state’s economic outlook is grim for the next few years, Peltason also will have to decide how and whether the system can still accept the top 12.5% of California’s high school graduates without eroding the quality of research and instruction that has gained the UC system a worldwide reputation.

“We may have to rethink the educational master plan and the mission of the university,” Peltason observed in an interview after his lecture.

Despite the tasks ahead, Peltason enjoys teaching so much that he plans to accept a UC Berkeley professor’s invitation to lecture there in the coming school year.

“I will find an opportunity to do it,” he said firmly.

In his swan song of sorts at UC Irvine on Monday, the affable 68-year-old chancellor talked easily and without notes, drawing from more than four decades of research on U.S. government. Yet even in a freshly pressed, impeccably tailored gray suit, Peltason at the lectern conveys the air of a mumbling, absent-minded professor fond of self-deprecation.

“When I first started teaching a couple of hundred years ago,” he began, only to be interrupted by a ripple of giggles down each row of desks.

Seeming oblivious to the laughter, Peltason plunged on, saying that he used to believe that the U.S. Supreme Court was part of an “independent power elite, divorced from the political process.”

He no longer believes this is so, and he challenges the conventional notion of conservatives, who for more than two decades have been unhappy with many decisions of the high court and have called for term limits or direct election of federal judges.

Peltason says they are misreading the court.

“American history has shown that the court and the people sooner or later come together,” he said, citing rulings on the death penalty, prisoners’ rights, abortion and other highly charged social issues.

“Ultimately, what happens out here in the political process is what happens on the Supreme Court,” he said, noting that segregation was upheld as constitutional by the courts in 1896, only to be struck down in 1954.

“That’s not because the Constitution changed, but because of the changing times, and the emergence of a black middle class,” Peltason said. “By and large, (the court reflects what) most of the people want, most of the time.”

He also skewered pundits who note the conservative shift of the current U.S. Supreme Court as if it were a new development.

“Presidents from Nixon to Reagan have said that if they were elected to office, they would turn the court to the right. . . . They won, and they have.” Not that the Democratically dominated U.S. Senate doesn’t exercise some countervailing force. They do. And that, jokes the longtime Democrat, is “politics in the best sense of the word.”

Peltason said it would be a mistake to take away life appointments and make federal judges run for office, as state judges do now in California. That would inject more politics into high court decisions than is healthy, he said.

“I don’t think it has worked all that well in the states,” he said.

What about age or term limits, one student wanted to know?

“I wouldn’t be opposed to that . . . say a two-term limit or an age limit of 70 or something,” said Peltason, whose own mandatory retirement at 65 has been waived by the UC Board of Regents.

Peltason also enjoys direct exchanges with students on his beloved subject of politics. One woman wanted to know if he thought entrenched politicians should be turned out of office if they don’t reflect the will of the people in their votes or actions. She cited U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., as an example of a hoary incumbent, remote from his constituents.

Peltason smiled, his arms folded around his midsection, then leaned forward. “Who keeps electing him?” he asked. “The people of Massachusetts.”

As for those who complain of the logjam in the nation’s capital because the President and the congressional majority have been from opposing political parties for most of the last three decades, Peltason observed that it is the voters who keep sending that mix back to Washington.

“Maybe (voters) really do want Republican presidents and Democrat-controlled congresses,” he said.

Students applauded Peltason when the class ended, and professor Carl Schwarz, a visiting political scientist from Cal State Fullerton, thanked him effusively.

Peltason, delighted by the response, answered: “I’ll come back any time you invite me.”