By Dave Andrusko
Goodwin Liu
So where do pro-abortion judicial nominees go when pro-life senators refuse to roll over? Well, in the case of Goodwin Liu, they get sworn in (yesterday) as a state supreme court judge in his native California.
It’s not surprisingly that pro-abortion Gov. Jerry Brown would nominate Liu whose nomination to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal Senate Democrats were unable to invoke cloture (end debate) last May. Ideologically they travel in the same circles.
In case you have forgotten, Liu is strongly committed to judicial activism and to an expansive judge-made ‘right’ to abortion. At the time of the fight NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson highlighted the importance NARAL Pro-Choice America had placed on Liu’s confirmation. NARAL conducted an extended lobbying campaign on behalf of Liu, calling him a “champion of the constitutional right to privacy,” and claimed after the vote to have generated 20,000 messages to senators in support of Liu’s nomination.
Liu also got himself into trouble by personally attacking the nomination of (now Justice) Samuel Alito as well as publishing an opinion piece when Chief Justice John Roberts was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court in which he specifically attacked Roberts as a threat to ‘abortion rights.’ Even pro-abortion Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) found him too much. In a floor statement, Webb said he would vote to end debate but against Liu.
“When I met with Mr. Liu, I found him to be personable and clearly bright, but intellect in and of itself does not always give a person wisdom, nor does it guarantee good judgment, and the root word of judgment is of course, judge. This is our duty today–to decide whether Mr. Liu’s almost complete lack of practical legal experience, coupled with his history of intemperate, politically charged statements, allow us a measure of comfort and predictability as to whether he would be fair and balanced while sitting on one of the highest courts in the land. Mr. Liu’s temperament and his frequently strident political views have been called into question by many well-intentioned observers.”
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