Berkeley Law Prof Said to Be 9th Circuit Nominee
A law professor from the University of California at Berkeley is said to be President Obama’s choice for a seat on the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Law professor Goodwin Liu is expected to be nominated today, the Los Angeles Times reports. If he is confirmed quickly, he would be the only Asian-American serving full time on an appeals court. The Senate has not yet confirmed the nomination of a second Asian-American, Judge Denny Chin, to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in New York.
Liu chairs the board of the liberal American Constitution Society, but he has supporters as well as detractors within conservative ranks, the story says. He was formerly an appellate litigator at O’Melveny & Myers, according to his law school biography.
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog points out that Liu is only 39 years old. “Are federal judicial nominees getting younger, or is it just that we here at the Law Blog are getting older?” the blog asks.
Some conservatives admire Liu for supporting school choice and serving as a faculty adviser to a public charter school, the Los Angeles Times says. Detractors point to a report he co-wrote opposing the nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the U.S. Supreme Court because of “a disturbing tendency to tolerate serious errors in capital proceedings.” Liu also criticized Alito for “troubling perspectives on federalism, race and due process of law.
