By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to take up a vote today on the appointment of a judge to the liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco whose record is so radical that 42 of California’s 58 county district attorneys sent a letter to the Senate warning them not to make this man a lifetime member of the federal bench.
Goodwin Liu is being called President Obama’s most controversial judicial nominee to date. The Family Research Council (FRC) is reporting that as a law professor at Berkeley, Liu did nothing to hide for his disdain of the U.S. Constitution.
“‘…[S]trict construction,'” he wrote in the Stanford Law Review, “[doesn’t] make a lot of sense. The Framers deliberately chose broad words so that they would be adaptable over time.”
He later expanded on this view in an interview in which he said: “To say that all we do is look at the text and we read the words literally, or all we do is look at the text and ask how did the people in 1789 or the people in 1868 understand it–that I think misses an entire range of experience that the nation has itself learned and that judges can rightly take into account.”
In addition to not thinking the U.S. Constitution is binding, he has also said that he finds it “difficult to grasp” why foreign law cannot be imposed in the U.S.
Liu is also a stronger backer of same-sex marriage and submitted a brief during the court’s review of California’s Proposition 8 case in which he called supporters of traditional marriage “a narrow and ultimately temporary majority.”
He believes in the judicial recognition of a right to welfare and has been highly critical of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. During the confirmation process for these appointees, Liu demanded that Senators question them on gay rights, abortion rights, environmental issues, home grown marijuana, and a host of other liberal issues.
Perhaps most troubling of all is his overt embrace of judicial activism. He has written extensively in favor of judges taking their own ideas and experiences into account, and has been known to act upon those beliefs by serving on the boards of several bastians of judicial activism such as the ACLU, the National Women’s Law Center, Chinese for Affirmative Action and Public Welfare Foundation, to name a few.
The senate is scheduled to vote today on whether or not to give Liu a lifetime job on the Ninth Circuit – which is only one step away from the highest court in the land. In anticipation of the vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) commented on Liu’s confirmation, saying “it isn’t fair to leave in limbo well-qualified nominees.”
However, as the FRC points out, Liu isn’t qualified for the post, at least not according to the American Bar Association which clearly stated that Liu does not meet the standards for a federal judge – which includes 12 years experience in the practice of law and “substantial courtroom experience.” Liu, who is only 39 years old, hasn’t even been out of law school for 12 years and has had no trial experience.
“As Senator Reid knows, his party can’t reach cloture without Republican defections,” writes Tony Perkins, president of the FRC. “This is one of those ‘extraordinary circumstances’ where Liu’s record is not worthy of an up-or-down vote. If the GOP is going to draw the line, now’s the time. Members should vote against cloture, and those who can’t should simply vote ‘present.'”
The FRC is urging concerned citizens to contact their Senators today to tell them “America doesn’t need Goodwin Liu imposing his twisted ideas of justice on America’s legal system.”
Senators can be contacted at 202-224-3121.
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