Boalt dean Liu's nomination to federal appeals court appears dead -- for now

Oakland Tribune ^ | 12/21/10 | Josh Richman

[SmithL]

A Cal law school dean's nomination to a federal appeals court appears to be dead, at least for now, under a deal struck between U.S. Senate Democrats and Republicans to break a year-end judicial confirmation logjam.

Officials familiar with the deal said Democrats agreed not to seek votes on the nominations of Goodwin Liu, associate dean at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, and three others, while Republicans agreed to confirm at least 19 of President Barack Obama's noncontroversial nominees.

If confirmed, Liu, 40, of Berkeley, would be only the second Asian-American serving on a federal appeals court and the only active Asian-American on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and is seen by some as a potential future U.S. Supreme Court pick. However, his nomination in February was almost immediately met by Republican opposition.

"Professor Liu is an outstanding nominee and it is most unfortunate that my Republican colleagues are blocking an up-or-down vote on his nomination," U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said Tuesday. "I will keep fighting until he is confirmed."

That jibes with Senate buzz that Liu is likely to be renominated in 2011, and Democrats -- though lesser in number, still in the majority -- will strive to get him confirmed. Liu reportedly has had some good meetings on Capitol Hill in the past two months, making some ground with rank-and-file Republicans who might be more inclined to confirm him next year, when the clock hasn't Advertisement run down so far.

The Senate has approved 10 judges in the past few days without a single dissenting vote as part of this deal, worked out between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Republican counterpart, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, with the knowledge of the White House, officials said. Spokesmen for the two Senate leaders declined to comment.

Officials described the maneuvering on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss private conversations.

In addition to the 10 nominees confirmed since Thursday, the Senate is expected to approve at least nine more before lawmakers adjourn for the year. All have been pending in the Senate since Sept. 23 or before. Another 15 have been awaiting a vote for less than a month.

The unconfirmed nominations will expire when Congress adjourns for the year. Besides Liu, they include Edward Chen of San Francisco to the federal bench in California's Northern District; Louis B. Butler Jr. to the federal bench in Wisconsin's Western District; and John J. McConnell Jr. to the federal bench in Rhode Island.

The GOP didn't care for Liu's liberal credentials: He chairs the progressive American Constitution Society's board of directors; he's a former member of the boards of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and Chinese for Affirmative Action; and he served on the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition's education policy and agency review teams. Nor did some Republicans care for his belief that judges should interpret the Constitution not according to "how its general principles would have been applied in 1789 or 1868, but rather how those principles should be applied today in order to preserve their power and meaning in light of the concerns, conditions, and evolving norms of our society," as described in a 2009 book he co-authored, "Keeping Faith With the Constitution."

But University of Minnesota law Professor Richard Painter, who was President George W. Bush's chief ethics lawyer and is now among conservatives supporting Liu's confirmation, said Liu "is not an activist or an extremist at all," and those who read his writings will see that.

Painter believes Senate Republicans framed Liu as an arch-liberal activist mainly because he'd spoken out against the confirmations of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito. Painter worked on Alito's confirmation on the Bush White House's behalf, and said Liu "wasn't even on the radar screen, nobody sweated what he was saying at the time," but times have changed.

"This whole thing is a tit-for-tat It's, 'If you came after our guys, we're coming after your guys,' " Painter said. "I think that might've made him a lightning rod but it's all politics, it has nothing to do with whether he's an extremist or not."

[Cicero]

That’s a “compromise”? The Dems withdraw 4 candidates and the Republicans confirm 19 “or more”? Every one of them a flaming leftist, I’m sure.

[muawiyah]

There are many, many Chinese-American lawyers in this country who would make great judges, so why go find one of the Chi-Coms to do the job?

They knew better than that.

I think it's so they can alienate the Chinese part of the Republican base. Like all the Chinese Americans don't have any idea who this guy is ~ sure ~ they're not as smart as the people from the Souf' side of Chicago. (/s)

[AuH2ORepublican]

I think those 19 were being held up not because they were objectionable (by the standards of who someone like Obama would nominate), but because the GOP was, correctly, using that as leverage to sink the dangerous extremist Liu and a few others. With only 41 Senators until about a month ago, that was a pretty good feat for the GOP to pull.

But the GOP better not let Liu come close to being confirmed next year, or all will have been for naught.