Litigation

Nominee Liu: Alito Slam Showed ?Poor Judgment?

By Peter Hardin

Law professor Goodwin Liu, one of President Obama’s most controversial judicial nominees, has apologized for a verbal fusillade he unleashed upon Samuel Alito during the would-be Supreme Court justice’s nomination hearing.

?I think the language that I used was unduly harsh, it was provocative and it was unnecessary,? said Liu, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, at his second nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Obama wants to seat Liu on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but Republicans have stalled his appointment on grounds he is too liberal.

?I am concerned about his understanding and appreciation of the proper role of a judge in our system of checks and balances,? Sen. Charles Grassley, the committee’s senior Republican, according to an article in the Main Justice blog.

Liu, responding to questions by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said the final paragraph of his testimony against Alito in 2006 showed “poor judgment,” the Blog of Legal Times reported. Here is what Liu said in 2006:

?[His] record envisions an America where police may shoot and kill an unarmed boy to stop him from running away with a stolen purse; where federal agents may point guns at ordinary citizens during a raid, even after no sign of resistance; where the FBI may install a camera where you sleep on the promise that they won?t turn it on unless an informant is in the room; where a black man may be sentenced to death by an all-white jury for killing a white man, absent a multiple regression analysis showing discrimination; and where police may search what a warrant permits, and then some.?

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. told Liu, ?I actually think you?ll be, if you get there, a fine appellate court judge.” She added, ?And I think this is really hard because you see the polarization that exists. Whether we can overcome it or not, I don?t know.?

Senate Republicans are likely to filibuster his nomination, according to a Politico article, rendering his prospects for confirmation in 2011 nearly as slim as last year. Liu first was nominated in 2010. Learn more about the partisan battle over his nomination from Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 03, 2011 (boomark / email).