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U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida R. Alexander Acosta will become the dean of Miami’s Florida International University law school on July 1, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Alex Acosta

We previously reported that 14 of the 26 FIU law professors deemed Acosta “not acceptable” to be their new dean in a non-binding poll. The controversy stemmed from Acosta’s politics. He helped George W. Bush in the bitter 2000 Florida recount. Then in 2003, Bush nominated the Miami native to head the Civil Rights Division at Main Justice.

Acosta served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights from August 2003 to June 2005, presiding over a period of intense turmoil. During his tenure, the division approved then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s (R-Texas) extraordinary mid-decade redistricting plan that ending up giving the Texas GOP five new House seats. (The DOJ said at the time that Acosta had recused himself from the Texas decision but didn’t explain why).

Also during Acosta’s tenure, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brad Schlozman carried out his reign of terror against career staff attorneys perceived to be liberal Democrats. Read the Justice Department Inspector General report on Schlozman’s improper partisan hiring decisisons here.

After Harvard Law School, Acosta clerked for Samuel A. Alito, Jr., now a Supreme Court Justice, on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He also worked in the Washington office of Kirland & Ellis.

The Southern District of Florida is one of the most prestigious U.S. Attorney offices in the nation, with one of its busiest workloads. As U.S. Attorney, Acosta focused on health care fraud (Miami, along with Los Angeles, launched a Medicare fraud “strike force”  in 2007. Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced May 20 the Obama administration is expanding those strike forces to Detroit and Houston). He also prosecuted accused al-Qaeda “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla and the Repubulican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

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