On Kiwi Camara’s biographical website, the 22-year-old legal phenom lists several accolades — his prestigious law fellowship, a coveted federal appeals court clerkship and, not to be forgotten, his graduation magna-cum-laude from Harvard Law School.

Perhaps emboldened by his accomplishments, Camara instructs readers to do something that could be considered career suicide. “Google me!” the website says.

The results reveal something from Camara’s past that has followed him throughout his brief career and that last week may have cost him a teaching job at George Mason University School of Law.

Camara, a native Filipino who grew up in Hawaii and enrolled at Harvard Law School at age 16, had been on track to become an assistant professor at the law school. But his candidacy was derailed after the law school’s dean, Daniel Polsby, publicised the possible appointment so he could hear what students had to say before making a final decision.

During Camara’s first year at Harvard Law School in 2002, he fuelled a controversy when he wrote racist remarks in a voluminous summary of a 1948 Supreme Court decision that barred restrictive covenants based on race. He then posted the writing on a website designed to help other law students.

In the five years since he wrote the racist phrase, it has surfaced from campus to campus, job interview to job interview.

The questions emerged with renewed intensity for Camara, and for George Mason law students, who said Camara’s possible hiring triggered fresh debate on campus about race and the school’s politically conservative image.

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