Litigation

Divided Panel Advances Nomination of Goodwin Liu

By Peter Hardin

President Obama’s nomination of Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was approved on a party-line vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee, after Republicans assailed Liu and linked him to Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the panel’s senior Republican, said, “The president has chosen another academic who has focused on policy the majority of her career to sit on the highest court of the land,” in reference to Kagan, according to a Washington Post article.

“As a former academic himself, the president tends to prefer an academic approach to the law…. He prefers a results-oriented approach to the law,” Sessions added.

But Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont and the panel’s chairman, drew a comparison between Liu and Michael McConnell, a conservative law professor named to a federal appeals court by President George W. Bush, the New York Times reported.

In teaching the law, Leahy said,  Liu ?has done what great professors do?challenge our view of the law….But he has left no doubt that as a judge he would do what great judges do in applying the law fairly to each case.”

The 12-7 vote on Thursday advanced Liu’s nomination, the most controversial of Obama’s choices for appellate courts, to the full Senate.  Liu has advocated for liberal causes and opposed the nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.

To learn more about Liu and the confirmation fight, check out Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on May 13, 2010 (boomark / email).