by Christine Kim
Just months after withdrawing his bid for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, U.C. Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu has been nominated by Gov. Jerry Brown for the California Supreme Court.
If appointed, Liu would replace Carlos Moreno, who retired back in February.
“I’m deeply honored by Gov. Brown’s nomination and look forward to the opportunity to serve the people of California on our state’s highest court,” said Liu, in a statement.
Steward Kwoh, president and executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, expressed his support.
“Professor Goodwin Liu is a preeminent and highly respected law professor and will bring to the court the essential values of fairness and equality for all,” Kwoh said in a release.
Liu, 40, had been previously nominated by President Barack Obama for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. However, Senate Republicans had successfully blocked Liu’s appointment with a filibuster. They had deemed the rising liberal to be inexperienced and Sen. Mitch McConnell called Liu a “left-wing ideologue who views the role of a judge not as that of an impartial arbiter, but as someone who views the bench as a position of power.”
The young professor must be confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments before taking his seat in the second-highest court in the country.
The left-leaning Liu is an associate dean and law professor at U.C. Berkeley specializing in constitutional law, education policy, civil rights and the Supreme Court. A former clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Liu received his law degree from Yale in 1998, a master’s degree from Oxford and a bachelor’s degree from Stanford in 1991.
