Would Goodwin Liu Sink the Left-Leaning 9th Circuit?
By Debra Saunders (Archive) ยท Sunday, April 11, 2010 There are two ways the Senate can approach a president’s judicial nominees — and specifically President Barack Obama’s nomination of University of California, Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in San Francisco. One: “We had an election. A Democrat won. And the president can pick who he likes.” To wit: Liu — a Rhodes scholar and graduate of Stanford and Oxford universities and Yale Law School who clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — is highly qualified. Republicans should not use delay tactics and the filibuster to thwart a full-Senate up-or-down vote on Liu. Two: “Because federal judges receive lifetime appointments and often serve through the terms of multiple presidents, it behooves a president — and benefits our democracy — to find moderate nominees who can garner some measure of bipartisan support.” That is: The opposition party has an obligation to fight ext
