Legal News

Report: Berkeley Prof (No, Not Yoo) to Get Ninth Circuit Nomination

By Ashby Jones

Are federal judicial nominees getting younger, or is it just that we here at the Law Blog are getting older?

One thing we know: According to an LA Times story out Wednesday, UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu, 39, is about to land a job that he just may want to keep for the rest of his life. The LAT is reporting that Liu is soon to get nominated by President Obama to an open seat on the Ninth Circuit.

According to the story, Liu indeed appears to wear fairly liberal stripes. He opposed the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Alito, and is chairman of the board of the American Constitution Society, whose mission statement opposes the “activist conservative legal movement.”

That said, reports the LAT, Liu has conservative admirers too, partly for his embracing of school choice as a solution to problems in public education. The LAT reports that he came to the White House’s attention with the recommendation of some conservatives. He graduated from Stanford and Yale Law, was a Rhodes Scholar, and clerked for Justice Ginsburg.

“He’s as sharp as they come, with a kind demeanor and a good temperament,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). “And he’s someone who has earned the broad respect of his colleagues on the left and the right.”

If confirmed, Liu would be one of two Asian-American federal appellate judges, alongside the Ninth Circuit’s Wallace Tashima, who took senior status in 2004. New York federal judge Denny Chin has been tapped for a seat on the Second Circuit, but has yet to be confirmed.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 24, 2010 (boomark / email).