Goodwin Liu, the much-admired law professor whose nomination to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was run into the ground [1] by the Senate GOP this year, is now a judge. Liu was confirmed [2] last night to sit on the California Supreme Court, where one of his first cases [3] will determine whether those defending Proposition 8 will have standing to appeal their trial court loss.
When Liu withdrew his appeals court nomination in May, after being the subject of two years of partisan bickering [4], PFAW’s Marge Baker said in a statement [5]that he “would have made a superb jurist” but “unfortunately, Mitch McConnell and the Senate GOP decided to use Goodwin Liu to make a political point – they smeared the reputation of this respected legal mind while ignoring many of their own vows to never filibuster a judicial nominee.”
California is lucky to have Liu on its Supreme Court. But it’s a shame that the Senate GOP put him through two years of partisan smears before he found a place on the bench.