Legal News

Round 2: The Goodwin Liu Confirmation Slugfest

By Nathan Koppel

Goodwin Liu, one of the more high profile judicial nominees in recent memory, is back in the news today.

Liu, as you certainly recall, failed to win confirmation to the Ninth Circuit last year, with Republicans and conservatives faulting the Berkeley law professor for allegedly favoring same-sex marriage and the use of international law in judicial rulings, among other perceived faults.

Even South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a moderate Republican who has voted in favor of Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, voiced concerns about Liu.

Congress adjourned in December without the Senate voting on Liu's nomination. But President Obama earlier this year renominated Liu, who is being examined again today by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Click here to a view a live webcast of the hearing.

The Legal Times's BLT Blog has this preview of the hearing. One subplot, BLT notes, is that Liu criticized Justice Alito Jr. in testimony before the Judiciary Committee in 2006. One of the Judiciary Committee's new members is Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who clerked for Alito on the 3rd Circuit and on the Supreme Court.

Richard Painter, a former ethics adviser to President George W. Bush, has this item in Huffington Post advocating for Liu’s confirmation. “Based on my own review of [Liu's] record,” Painter writes, “I believe it’s not a close question that Liu is an outstanding nominee whose views fall well within the legal mainstream.”

But Conservative judicial pundit Ed Whelan, in this post, begs to differ with Painter, stating that Liu’s academic writings suggest that he will take a “freewheeling” approach to constitutional interpretation and that he supports racial quotas.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 02, 2011 (boomark / email).