Academic

Lithwick on the Infinite Sadness of Liberal Law Students (and Goldstein on Liu)

By Lawrence Solum

Goodwin Liu faces a brutal confirmation fight tomorrow precisely because he's been brave enough to speak openly about how he thinks about the Constitution. Strip away the hysteria and distortions, and that's all he represents: a voice on one side of a centuries-long debate about how to interpret that document. Tom Goldstein (him again!) put it well when he wrote, before Liu's last (scuttled) hearing:
If Liu's opponents succeed, it is hard to see why the president would later nominate or the Senate would confirm any candidate who openly embraces the long-prevailing view that the Constitution is written in broad terms precisely in order to account for the varied problems that a huge and dynamic country would confront over the centuries. The truth is that we should not fear the appointment of brilliant and conscientious lawyers like Goodwin Liu, whether those nominees tare on the ideological left or right. Instead, we should encourage them to take these critical appointments. There is a vibrant disagreement in the courts over how to interpret the Constitution, with no consensus on the correct answer. The jurists participating in that debate are not outside of the "mainstream." Nor is Goodwin Liu.
Young people on both sides of the dispute over the Constitution deserve to have their stars. It's awfully hard to be inspired when your heroes are benched before the game even begins.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on April 16, 2010 (boomark / email).