Goodwin Liu Cloture Vote Set For Thursday

Finally! The United States Senate is poised to vote Thursday on ending debate on the nomination of Goodwin Liu to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. MadProfessah has been following the process of this nomination very closely, since it was first made last Spring. Republicans in the Senate killed the nominations of Liu to the 9th U.S. Circuit and Ed Chen to the U.S. Northern District of California right before the November 2010 election.

When the 112th Congress convened in January 2011, President Barack Obama re-nominated both Liu and Chen and last week the United States Senate confirmed Chen by a vote of 56 to 42.

Majority Leader Harry Reid filed a cloture vote on Tuesday afternoon which means that sometime on Thursday a vote will be held to end debate on the Liu nomination. Liu, 40, if approved to the appellate court, could become a likely Supreme Court nominee in a 2nd Obama administration. He is extremely well-qualified, personable and has an amazing life story.

Many, many progressive organizations are urging people to contact their Senators to vote in favor of the Liu nomination. Here's an excerpt of what Alliance for Justice has to say about Liu's nomination:

Goodwin Liu is extremely well qualified to be a circuit court judge. 

• He has sterling academic qualification. Liu attended Stanford University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1991.  He was co-president of the student body and the recipient of the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award, the University’s highest honor for outstanding service to undergraduate education.  He went on to receive his M.A. at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 1993.  He later graduated from Yale Law School in 1998, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.
•  He received the highest possible rating from the ABA: “unanimously well-qualified.”
• Liu has broad experience in the academic, public and private sectors, providing the varied experience and perspectives that make a great judge. He served in the public sector at the Corporation for National Service and the U.S. Department of Education, and practiced law in the private sector at O’Melveny & Myers. He currently is Associate Dean and Professor of Law at University of California Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall). 

Goodwin Liu is a mainstream nominee with strong support from across the ideological spectrum, including Republican lawyers and academics.

• Liu’s views are well within the legal mainstream and are not ideological. For example, his academic writings include support for charter schools and school vouchers.
•  He has won strong praise from individuals representing a wide variety of ideologies, interests, and viewpoints: 
•  Kenneth Starr, former Whitewater prosecutor and appeals court judge called Liu “a person of great intellect, accomplishment, and integrity,” and “an extraordinarily qualified nominee.” 
• Former Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) said Liu’s writing “reveals his commitment to the Constitution.”
• Former Congressman Tom Campbell (R- Calif.) said that “Liu will bring scholarly distinction and a strong reputation for integrity, fair-mindedness, and collegiality to the Ninth Circuit.”
• Richard Painter, who worked on the confirmations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito as President George W. Bush’s chief ethics counsel, wrote that Liu is an “exceptionally qualified, measured, and mainstream nominee” who the Senate should “vote to confirm.”
•  Christopher Edley, Dean of the University of California, Berkley, Law School, said that Liu “has wonderful values, but at the end of the day, he’s not ideological.”
• Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) noted, “[h]e’s as sharp as they come, with a kind demeanor and a good temperament . . . [a]nd he’s someone who has earned the broad respect of his colleagues on the left and the right.” Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) echoed these sentiments, stating, “He is a proven authority on constitutional law with a keen intellect.”
• A bipartisan group of education policy experts, wrote that, “… his record demonstrates the habits of rigorous inquiry, open-mindedness, independence, and intellectual honesty that we want and expect our judges to have. His writings are meticulously researched and carefully argued, and they reflect a willingness to consider ideas on their substantive merits no matter where they lie on the political spectrum. Moreover, we are confident in Professor Liu’s ability to decide cases based on the facts and the law, regardless of his policy views. His scholarship amply demonstrates that kind of intellectual discipline, and our high regard for his work is widely shared.”
• The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, endorsed his nomination, writing that “We are confident he will further the cause of justice and follow the law and Constitution for all parties that come before his Court, again including crime victims and peace officers.”
• Twenty-seven former federal judges and prosecutors wrote to protest attacks on Liu’s record, saying that “rhetoric surrounding the criticism of his nomination has reached an unacceptable level, beyond what is appropriate in a civil, spirited debate,” and concluding that, “We applaud Professor Liu’s commitment to ensuring the constitutional rights of defendants facing the death penalty. Contrary to his critics’ claims, his commitment to the Constitution is commendable and vital for anyone seeking a position in what is often the court of last resort for individuals seeking to protect their constitutional rights.” 

Goodwin Liu’s story exemplifies the American Dream.

• His parents are immigrants from Taiwan, and although born in Georgia, he learned English only when he began attending public school in kindergarten. After moving to California, he overcame struggles with language to rise to co-valedictorian of his high school class, and then went on to academic distinction at Stanford, Oxford, and Yale.
• He would be only the second Asian American serving on a federal court of appeals, and the only Asian-American judge in active service on the Ninth Circuit, which includes Western states with large Asian-American populations.

I met Professor Liu when he testified in opposition to Proposition 8 in 2008 and strongly support his nomination to the 9th Circuit.